An ill-thought out plan on teaching a lesson about stranger danger turned into an emotionally scarring and traumatic experience for a 6-year old boy in Troy, Missouri, when members of his own family conspired to stage his kidnapping.
The boy was forced to endure 4 hours of being bound and subject to verbal abuse after his aunt's co-worker snatched him up as he was walking to school. All four people who were involved in the staged kidnapping, the boy's mother, grandmother, aunt, and aunt's co-worker, were charged with kidnapping and other felonies.
According to reports, the plot began when the boy's aunt, Denise Kroutil, asked her co-worker, Nathan Firoved, to kidnap her nephew. She said that his mother, Elizabeth Hupp and grandmother, Rose Brewer, approved of the plan because they wanted to teach him about being more cautious with strangers. Apparently they felt he was too nice.
Reportedly, Firoved waited for the 6-year old to get off his school bus and then lured him into his pickup truck.
When he was inside the truck, Firoved allegedly threatened the child and told him he would never see his mother again. He also said that he would be "nailed to the wall of a shed."
When the boy began to cry, Firoved brought out a hand gun and told him he would shoot him if he did not keep quiet. He then bound up the child's hand and feet with plastic bags and covered his head with a jacket so he could not see as they drove around in the truck.
Firoved then drove the boy's home and left him there, still bound, in the basement.
At this time, Kroutil allegedly removed her nephew's pants and taunted him, saying he would be sold into sex slavery. She also chastised the 6-year old for not resisting her or attempting to fight back.
After an undetermined amount of time, police say the boy was unbound and allowed to go upstairs where his family was waiting and lectured him about stranger danger and he should stay away from people he didn't know.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said that they learned about the incident when the boy told officials at his school what happened to him, although he could no longer remember the exact day the kidnapping took place.
The boy was placed in protective custody and the four involved with the staged kidnapping were arrested.
