What would you do?

You come out of Best Buy on a weekday afternoon around 3:00. You’re congratulating yourself on finding just the right speaker for your iPod Nano. You’re humming “Good King Wenceslaus” and making a grocery list in your head. You click open the lock on your car, put your purchase on the passenger seat, and sit behind the wheel.

You pause to find a scrap of paper to write down your grocery list, because the store is all of four blocks away, and you don’t want to forget to buy a jar of pimentos.

As you’re jotting down your list, you notice a white Toyota Corolla next to you. In the back seat is a sleeping child, a little girl who is about two or three. You say “awww” to yourself and look closer. There is no one in the car with her.

You get out of your car and peer into the back seat. Is there an older brother in there? Is the mother sitting in the back seat? No, there is no one.

You notice the windows are partially open. The doors are locked, although they could easily be opened by reaching through the window. On the front seat is the child’s work from pre-school, with her name at the top. 

Maybe you watch too many episodes of Law & Order, but nightmare scenarios start to play through your mind. With easy access to an unguarded child and armed with the knowledge of her name, a pervert could easily snatch the child.

You’re not a child abductor. You’re just a regular person who worries about other people’s business.

You scan the parking lot, looking for someone heading purposefully toward the Toyota. Surely the girl’s guardian is already on her way?

This precious little girl is in danger and whoever left her alone has broken the law. What do you do?

Here are some alternatives.

• Mind your own business.
• Stay with the child until the driver returns.
• Call the police.

Which one did you choose?

When I was faced with this decision last week, the voices in my head were having an argument that sounded like this:

Glinda: It’s my duty to make sure the child is safe.

Elvira: Hey, it’s San Carlos in daylight, not Bayview-Hunter’s Point at night!
 

G: How could anyone leave their child alone like that?

E: Listen, she probably just ran in to buy batteries and didn’t want to wake up the baby for a three-minute errand.
 

G: I should call the police.

E: It’s Christmas! They’ll probably arrest the mother for child endangerment and haul her off in handcuffs!

G: I should stay until they return and let them know what a terrible chance they took.
E: Yeah, some public shaming will set them straight!

In the end, I did none of the above. I waited for ten more minutes. Then I tore off the bottom of my grocery list and wrote a note on it. I slipped it through the window of the Toyota, onto the passenger seat. It landed on top of the girl’s colorful drawings and books.

The note, purposely succinct, read, “I could have kidnapped your child.”

I wish I’d called the police.