Mom warns that a fake child protective services caseworker tried to take her son

A New York mom is sounding the alarm about a strange but terrifying ploy to snatch children. Ashley Bradley says she believes a woman posing as a Child Protective Services caseworker came to her door, attempting to remove her 9-month-old son Ja’vonni from their home.

Bradley took to Facebook to spread her warning. According to Bradley, the woman claimed to be with the Delaware County CPS agency. Luckily, her motherly instincts kicked into high gear.

Bradley says she immediately realized the woman didn’t have a badge to prove who she worked for, and even though the woman knew her son’s name — which is scary in itself — the name was spelled incorrectly on the folder she had in her hand. Bradley also knew she had no pending cases with the agency.

Bradley refused to let the woman inside her home, and she called police. Her advice to other parents is simple.

“For anyone who experiences this lock your door call the cops and keep your kids with you till they get there,” Bradley posted to Facebook.

During the ordeal, Bradley made sure to check on her son, who was napping at the time. By the time police arrived, the woman was gone.

Similar Incidents Across The Country

Unfortunately, this is not the first case of its kind. Shortly after Bradley’s call to police, Delaware State Police began searching for three people accused of posing as caseworkers from Child Protective Services in the town of Dover. The suspects told a woman they had to check on the welfare of her children. Again, they could not provide credentials or any other proof of identification.

In Texas, a stranger also posing as a caseworker told a father to hand over his three children. That father was armed and able to get his family to safety.

In 2017, police in Milton, Pennsylvania, say a woman tried to barge into a home and take a child without any explanation. When she was asked to provide identification, she ran away.

Are These Cases Of Attempted Child Trafficking?

Bradley also wrote in her Facebook post that, when a police office arrived at her door, he suggested that the incident could be connected to trafficking.

“He said people come from different countries and states kidnap kids and traffic them it does not matter what the age,” she wrote.

While there’s no way to know for sure that any of the aforementioned incidents were attempts at child trafficking, such cases have been reported in all 50 states in the U.S. 

Like Bradley and all other parents put in a similarly tough situation, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and always ask for proper identification before ever trusting a stranger with your kids.