We’re often taught at a very young age to protect our siblings at any cost, particularly the younger ones. Most times, we simply react to what is happening, leaving little thought to the dangers we just might have put ourselves in.
This is exactly what happened when a kidnapper attempted to take 22-month-old, Owen Wright, from his older sister, eight-year-old, Delicia and brother, ten-year-old, Brenden.
The children were playing in a park outside of their babysitter’s house in the small town of Sprague, Washington.
Sprague is considered a small and safe community with a population of only 500 residents.
A man began talking to the children just before grabbing Owen and fleeing. The man claimed to have been a babysitter before and was “nice” to kids.
Delicia recalled the interaction:
“He said he’s nice to kids and he’d been babysitting for a long time.”
What the suspect didn’t expect was for Owen’s brave siblings to pursue him after he took their brother.
The chase was caught on camera. On the video, Delicia trails the man with Brenden further behind still rolling the empty stroller!
Delicia said she began screaming to draw attention to the kidnapper.
It worked. Two teenagers, Andrew Crane and Isaac Yow, heard her screams and began to pursue the kidnapper as well.
Andrew knew things didn’t look right.
“When you pickup there’s a girl running behind him, he’s running down an alleyway with a kid, things don’t look right,” Andrew said.
Isaac added, “I don’t consider myself a hero. I just consider myself a person doing the right thing.”
Eventually, the man set Owen down and took off. At the time, he got away but Owen was okay.
When asked if he was afraid of chasing after a bad guy, Brenden responded without hesitation, “No.”
The reason that Brenden wanted to get his little brother back so badly isn’t exactly what you might have imagined:
“I was chasing him because — so I can get him back for my cousin’s birthday party.”
You have to love a kid’s honesty.
The suspect was identified later as a 15-year-old boy. It turned out that both Andrew and Isaac knew the suspect. He was a fellow freshman at their school.
Isaac’s grandmother, Dorothy Giddings, said she heard the screams as well. She credited Delicia for essentially saving Owen’s life.
“I told that little girl, I said, ‘Honey, you did exactly what you needed to do, scream your head off.’ That’s what saved that baby. Her screaming and us running.”
According to Giddings, there are only 7 or 8 freshmen out of the entire school which only totals out to about 30 or 40 students.
The children’s father, Michael Wright, is thankful that they are okay but has trouble describing the way he felt when he heard the news:
“I can’t explain the feeling, the anxiety and everything that goes into finding out your children is missing or something has happened to them.”
He also likened his older children as heroes for chasing down the kidnapper.
The young man who attempted to kidnap Owen was charged with second-degree kidnapping and booked in a juvenile facility.
Although 90% of children who are abducted are returned home safely, there’s no denying the emotional toll that takes over the family during a kidnapping and after the safe return of the victim.
These are definitely siblings anybody would want.
You can watch the surveillance video below.
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