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SALT LAKE CITY — It's every parent's worst nightmare — their child being abducted. But luckily, for one 7-year-old girl in Georgia, she knew just what to do when she got attacked.
Brittney Baxter, of Bremen, Ga., was browsing the toy aisle at her local Walmart when the unthinkable happened: A surveillance camera captured the frightening scene as a man grabbed her and quickly tried to cover her mouth with his hand.
But Brittney fought back.
"Yeah, I was just trying to do this and kick as hard as I can," Brittney said.
That was the first thing she did right. Child safety experts teach kicking as a response, along with yelling. Do as Brittney did, they say, and chances are the child will get away.
"You could see her natural instinct kick in and (it) said, ‘You're not going to take me!'" said Alyson Larson, an instructor for RAD Kids in Utah County. She added that non-submissive instinct likely saved Brittney's life.
RAD Kids is the nation's largest empowerment, child safety program. Instructors like Larson say it's important to teach safety skills at an early age.
"Train them at home. If you can't do anything else, train them at home," Larson said.
And for Brittany, what she learned at home made all the difference in the steps she took to get away. "You try to get away and go tell somebody that you trust," she said, which is exactly what she did.
Police tracked down the man who tried to take Brittany: 25-year-old Thomas A. Woods. Turns out, he is a convicted felon out on parole.
