A Texas mother launched an awareness campaign about child trafficking, empowering parents with the necessary information by writing a book and creating a website.
Speaking to Abby Johnson in her Politely Rude podcast, Christian mom Amanda Florczykowski detailed her experience when her own daughter was almost snatched from her in 2016. She believed that it was a failed abduction attempt for child sex trafficking. Her story was also featured by Intercessors for America.
Florczykowski took her two-year-old daughter and infant son when she went to shop in a local Walmart. Then an unknown man approached them, telling her that her kids are cute. After a while, she transferred to stand in line for checkout. But she noticed that the same man who spoke to her earlier, continued to look at her and the children. He was with a woman. Then the woman started a conversation with Florczykowski.
"Her first words are, 'How old is your daughter? She's so cute. How old is your daughter?' And she wants to talk about my daughter. She asked me again, like 10 seconds later, 'OK, she's so cute. How old is your daughter?'" Florczykowski remembered.
She noticed that the woman turned to the man behind her, stiff-looking and was facing an opposite direction. Florczykowski observed that the woman was actually communicating with him in another language, talking about her children. The woman asked her again about the age of her daughter.
Realizing the situation, she held her daughter as the woman moved closer, putting her hand on Florczykowski's grocery cart.
Then, the woman asked her if she can hold her daughter. When Florczykowski turned down her request, the woman grabbed her daughter's wrist and started to leave the store while telling the little girl to say goodbye to her mother.
"I lunged forward, grabbing my child. It's like slow motion. At that same time, the couple is exiting the store. I finally have my daughter back. I'm like slumped over the register. My knees are shaking," she further recalled.
Still in shock, she then spoke to the woman behind the register, talking about the incident. She told her that what happened to her daughter was an attempted abduction by a "sex trafficking ring." When she said the word about "trafficking", she noticed another man staring at her, looking "pure evil" and terrifying. Florczykowski said that the man caught her attention, seemed to be telling her that he would not want her to say anything else.
When she got home, she immediately did her own online investigation about sex trafficking. She also posted her experience on Facebook, which went viral.
Not wanting anyone to fall into trafficking, Florczykowski wrote a book, "Unraveled: Mothering Fiercely in a World Full of Fears." She also launched a website, "Vigilant Families," providing parents with relevant information to fight human traffickers.
UNICEF USA says that child trafficking happens all across America. Statistics showed that cases of human trafficking rose to 25% from 2017 to 2018, including sex and labor trafficking.
The case about Jeffrey Epstein reportedly triggered the discussion about child trafficking for sexual purposes.
Town and Country Magazine said Epstein was a wealthy financier with ties to powerful people, such as Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, who had a "falling out with him" more than a decade ago. Epstein was arrested in July 2019, charged with sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to commit such. He died in jail in an apparent suicide in August 2019.
