Stranger Danger: What if it had been someone else?

I was on one of my frequent early evening walks a few days ago when I turned onto a residential street near my apartment complex.

The sidewalks are in good shape, the animals well-behaved. It's a nice stretch of one of my most common routes.

On this day, it offered an unsettling surprise.

I saw the small boy on his tricycle riding on the driveway of his house. He couldn't have been more than 4. As I reached the mailbox next to the sidewalk, he rode up and stopped.

"Give me a hug," he said, reaching his arms up to show he meant it. "I'll stay on my bike."

While I had seen him before, I'd never talked to him or his parents. My heart skipped a beat at his request. While I was touched by his gesture, I also knew there was no way I could grant his request.

"I'm sorry, but no," I told him, slowing slightly so he could hear me.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because your parents don't know me," I told him. "But thank you."

"Oh," he replied.

I wanted to stop and tell him that he shouldn't ask for hugs from people he doesn't know. But I had visions of a parent looking out the window and seeing a man they don't know talking to their son. A call to 911, and suddenly I've got police officers questioning me about a perfectly innocent exchange that from a distance may have appeared to be sinister.

I kept walking, and I thought that would be the end of it. But he began following me down the block on his tricycle. We passed one house, then another. And another. I was about to stop and tell him "It would be better if you stayed close to your house" when he stopped and turned back on his own.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

And yet the incident scared me. What if he asked for a hug from someone else? Someone who turned out to be a predator?

Why wasn't a parent keeping an eye on their son? What's going on that such a young child is asking for hugs from total strangers passing by on the sidewalk?

He didn't appear to be malnourished or bruised. It was likely nothing more than an innocent request from a child who has no concept of the bad things that have happened to other children snatched from the street. It doesn't happen often, police have told me, but that doesn't mean it won't.

Perhaps I was just being paranoid - the result of covering too many tragic stories involving children for the Wichita Eagle.

Yet I found myself awfully tempted to walk up to that door and tell the parents it was time they had a talk with their son about the proper behavior to exhibit around strangers. It may just save them much grief some day.