Hood Problems: Part 1, Strangers With Candy

I work as a maintenance man for a staffing company.  As such, I get sent to all sorts of properties across the Tampa Bay area.  I have been at upper class apartments, student housing, new, old, and all across the board types of properties.  However, this past week I went to the ghetto of ghetto apartments.  They were located in a bad, old section of town, and the entire place was Section 8 housing. 

Usually apartments will reserve part of the complex for Section 8 housing, so they can get some of that wonderful government money, but this was the first complex that I had been to that the entire place was Section 8 housing. 

On my second day I noticed a ton of children running around unattended.  After I thought about it, I remembered that school let out last week.  The problem I noticed is that all the kids were six years old and younger.  I saw a pack of four girls, all of them three years old and younger (yes, younger) running around the complex all day without any parents watching them.

I noticed a theme in that, if the kids could walk, they were left to go on their own with no supervision.  Frankly, I'm shocked by that.  I've seen pit bulls take better care of their young.

What really got me was something that I just had to write about.  Hence, the name of this particular blog.  This little girl came up to me and asked me if I knew where to get some chips.  This immediately flashed me back to my childhood where I learned about Stranger Danger and Strangers With Candy.

Not only was this hammered into my head by my teachers and parents as a kid.  We had McGruff the Crime Dog warning us in PSA's about Stranger Danger.

Now, my readers are of all sorts of ages, but even my older readers can remember some of the black and white PSA's warning of Strangers.  Schools and PSA's teaching about strangers goes back many, many decades.  So did this one just miss the boat, or is there just a "don't care" attitude that goes on there?

I wish I could have gotten ahold of her Mom, Grandmother, whoever, to let them know what happened.  But like I said, I never saw one parent watch or keep their kid in line. 

Let's be honest under worst case scenario, some stranger could have told that little girl (who may have been three or four years old) that he knew exactly where to get chips and to come with him.  And who knows if they would have ever found her body after that? 

I just feel that there's a lot of blame to go around.  But the way parents treated their kids around that place borders on neglect.  I just wonder if any of those kids will have a chance in life or will they be living in the same Section 8 housing when they are adults?

(That's not all that happened in my adventures in the Hood.  Stay tuned for Part 2.)