Where will they now be safe to play?

I had an interesting encounter yesterday that I feel compelled to share.

Early in the morning, around 10:30, David was at preschool and I was trying to entertain Hannah, and I had a few minutes to kill before 11 and our Mommy lunchin at Corrinas. I thought it the perfect opportunity to get in some one on one park time with her. She's always sharing the spotlight, and I knew she'd love to go to our favorite place to play and have me all to herself.

As we rolled up to the park, we had to go a bit of a ways to get parking there were so many cars, but it being a nice day and the end of September that wasn't surprising. What was surprising was however the mother with her babe in arms, practically running from the park. She took one look at me as she buckled her little one into the car seat and left without a word. I didn't think much of it at the time, people are always running to and fro, maybe she was late, or was out of diapers. Who knows. I then took Hannah out of the car and together we walked over to the park. Hannah is now walking, has been for a few weeks, and loves to get practice in whenever she can. I placed her on the ground and she immeidatly toddled over to the swings. We played there for some time, watching as other people walked their dogs or biked by. An older gentleman in a bright orange hat made his way towards the play ground and took a seat on one of the far benches. This is not an uncommon occurance at Centennial park, families will often come to the area and older members will take rests on the benches. However at this time, having heard of the high-risk Sexual Offender living out in Sidney, who prays on young girls newborn to early teens, it can be a little nerve racking. Thankfully for my nerves, other families joined us at the playground and eventually he left. As our time there came to a close, I walked with Hannah back to our car, and placed her in the car seat as I noticed a police car making its way through the little inset road we had parked on. He flashed his lights and drove off, which I found strange.

As we drove off, the happenings at the park quickly left my thoughts as we stopped in at the mommy lunch, and then left to pick up David from preschool.

However as I tried to sleep that night, I couldn't get the image of that man out of my mind. I couldn't shake the eery feeling he had given, and I started to wonder. Could this have been that man who I knew not his name or his face but had thought, Saanichton is farenough away from Sidney that we should be ok. This morning, just to cure my thoughts I looked up the newpaper article, and the photo of that man looked very much like the man in the orange hat.

It makes me wonder could it have been? And if it was, did that woman know? Why didn't say say anything. We need to ban together as a community, protect not only ourselfs but the others around us. We need to make smart choices and educate ourselfs.

http://www.theprovince.com/High+risk+sexual+offender+living+Sidney+RCMP/1988099/story.html