'Scariest thing in the world,' Father says woman tried to lure 3 children from Boston park
BOSTON - At Shubow Park in Brighton Thursday night, Mike Zazzara was convinced a woman was trying to take off with his three children, 2-year-old twins and a 3-year-old daughter.
"This lady was telling them how cute they were, so cute what's your name," said Zazzara.
He thought it was innocent enough as he watched them play on the slide from a nearby bench, but he says she became insistent. "Do you want to come with me, come with me, come, come," Zazzara said. "She has her arm around my daughter who hadn't gone down the slide yet."
That's when he says he confronted her and was alarmed enough at the situation to notify Boston police. "That's when I told her you can't put your hands on my daughter. I asked her what she was doing, and she was going back and forth and being evasive and giving me the runaround," he said.
Mike Zazzara believes it's now a cautionary situation for parents. He knows she wouldn't have gotten far with his children, but worries about what could have happened, and believes other parents should know.
"You have to be so careful with kids, things happen in a split second, you're on the phone or something, get a phone call. God forbid think about what could happen," he said.
It's a park he visits often and says his young children can easily run in several directions. He tried to keep the woman he describes as middle aged with shoulder length dark hair in the park long enough, but she left before police arrived. He says he needed to explain to his children what can happen.
"I wanted to get into as much detail as I could so they would understand the seriousness of what I felt and what I saw," Zazzara said. "It's the scariest thing in the world, it was horrible."
Boston police have not yet responded to inquiries about the situation.