11-year-old girl was about to be kidnapped — but her family's 'code word' saved her life

Arizona police are commending a family's proactive approach that helped their daughter escape a potentially dangerous situation. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office shared details on Facebook (now-deleted), recounting how an 11-year-old girl avoided abduction thanks to a family "code word" strategy. According to the post, a deputy was sent to investigate after the incident occurred in the North Pecan Creek neighborhood.

At around 3:45 p.m., while walking with a friend near a local park, the girl was approached by a man in a white SUV. He claimed her brother had been in a serious accident and that she needed to come with him. Rather than panicking, the young girl calmly asked the stranger for the family’s code word. When he couldn’t provide it, he sped away, leaving her unharmed. "Kudos to the parents of this child for having a code word and talking to their children about stranger danger," said Sheriff Mark Lamb. "We hope this story inspires other parents to have that critical conversation and put a plan in place with their kids."

At a press conference following the incident, the girl's mother, Brenda James, revealed that she got a tearful call from her daughter moments after the stranger "tried to take her." "My daughter called me crying upset and she told me that 'some guy tried to take her,'" James said. "He told her her brother had been in a serious accident and she needed to come home with him."

"So I just kind of calmed her down and she told me that some guy tried to take her and all my thoughts went out the window at that point and I got in my car and I drove home," she added. Speaking to Good Morning America, the girl shared what was going through her mind during the encounter. "I was terrified," she said. "I was terrified that my brother was in an actual accident, that he could be hurt." The girl added that she was also aware the man might have bad intentions. When she asked him what the code word was, she said, "He just kind of froze, his face. And drove off."

"I was scared," she added, "because if I had popped in, I don't know what he would have done to me." James explained that the family created the code word system to protect their children from such situations. "They know who can pick them up and who can't," she said of her children. "But there's always that special situation where there might be somebody they don't know or don't know well, so that's why we came up with a code word."

Child-safety experts say moments like this are exactly why families are encouraged to practice specific safety strategies with their kids. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has found that most attempted abductions fail because of something the child does on their own, whether that is refusing to go, drawing attention to themselves, or using a pre-arranged family code word. In cases where abductors rely on deception rather than force, those small, rehearsed actions can make all the difference.

Saying "kudos" to the parents for "having a code word and talking about to their children about 'stranger danger,'" Sheriff Mark Lamb praised the family's clever tactic. "The mother of this child did an awesome job teaching a code word to her child, and that potentially saved that girl's life," he said. "We hope by putting this out, it will encourage parents to have that conversation and create a plan with their children, so they know what to do if they are in that situation." Authorities revealed that other children also saw that vehicle in the neighborhood, "circling the park several times a day."