FAMILY STORY: Kendi's Abduction

It was Cuz’N Camp, 2003.  As always, we had selected a location which included water, shade, and interesting and/ or fun places to go on at least three “mystery trips.”  Along with my Cuz’N Camp assistant, Kaytee, the kids we had with us were Allysa, Whitney, Tylre, Zac and Kendi, all potty-trained and able to be away from Mom and Dad for 4-5 days.  This was the year we set as our base camp at Wasatch Mountain State Park, not far from Park City, UT.

Not sure what day of Cuz’N Camp this was, but Kendi – and probably a few of the other kids – had her shirt turned inside out because it was dirty, so it was probably Day 2-3 (this is significant because child abductions were common in this day and time – and most of the children abducted had their clothing altered so they were momentarily unidentifiable). 

The mystery-trip-of-the-day was a ride on the Alpine Slide, one of the longest slides in the world with over 3000 feet of track. Kendi, who was then about 5, happily joined her cousins on the ski-lift to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the exhilarating ride down the hill on her own sled. At the bottom, all the other kids wanted to ride the Alpine Slide one more time … Kendi did not. Tickets were handed out to all the other cousins for a second run, while Kendi selected something else to ride … until she saw the kids heading towards the ski lift. At that point she realized she may have made an error in judgment and wanted to trade her ticket for another ride on the Alpine Slide – except by now it was already on its way to the top with all her cousins on board.  She began to cry, howl, gyrate, scream, shout, bawl, weep … and, nothing could calm her.  

In complete frustration with the whole situation, Grandpa took her by the hand and began heading back to the camper.  The more he tugged, the more loudly she cried, wriggled and squirmed to get free of his grasp.  At this point he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder completely disgusted and muttering under his breath.  Suddenly from every side, concerned people encircled him and the child – still sobbing and carrying on. Now a crowd had gathered and some of the men pulled Kendi from her grandpa’s arms to try to determine her situation. They separated the two and began asking her questions. Was she being abused? Kidnapped?  Did she know this man?  Why was her t-shirt turned inside out?  When she realized the trouble she had caused for her Grandpa, she quieted down and admitted she was throwing a tantrum because her Grandma wouldn’t let her ride the Alpine Slide a second time when all her cousins got to go.

Eventually, the security guard returned his gun to its holster, the crowd dissipated and Grandpa and Kendi completed their trip back to the camper. Though Kendi hates hearing this story, it grows more fun and colorful with each telling and Grandpa is always pleased to report his police record remains unspotted.

The rest of the story is, Kendi Hansen has grown up to be a beautiful young woman and has apologized numerous times for her antics which nearly put Grandpa in jail.