A Tragedy Prevented

A Tragedy Prevented


Brock had used a website called www.CellphoneRegistry.com one time to find out who the owner was of a cell number he had found in his briefcase. It had been scrawled on a napkin and must have been there forever because he had totally forgotten where it came from. After finding out about this website through a search online, he had found out that the number was from a client that he'd worked with several months prior. After using the website that one time, he had forgotten about it.

Until it was his turn to take the kids to the park. Jesse was a four year old with limitless energy and Laura was a thirteen year old that had just started begging her dad to allow her to wear fingernail polish. Their mother and Brock's wife had a meeting and it was his day to spend time with the kids. In the middle of running around the slide to catch Jesse and keep him from putting a frog on another little girl, Brock had a phone call. It was an important client that couldn't wait, so he told Laura to watch Jesse and he went to the bench to answer the call.

The client was particularly rattled and kept Brock on the phone and distracted longer than he'd planned to be. He rifled through his briefcase to find papers that he could reference for the client in order to explain a point and by the time he got off the phone, half an hour had passed. Of course, he had glanced up at the children, but seeing that they were still there and playing, he hadn't worried.

On the way home, Laura became upset. Brock tried to find out why and was absolutely floored and outraged when he did find out. While he was on the phone, a man had come to the fence on the other side of the park. He had called Laura over and talked to her for a minute. He told her that she was very pretty and that he would like to talk to her more. Laura described the man as 'really old, like Grandpa.' She was extremely upset and said that the man had said she would make a good girlfriend. He had given her a piece of paper with a cell phone number on it and told her to call him.

Brock saw completely red and after dropping the kids off at home, he returned to the park and looked around. Of course, the man was nowhere to be found. Just then, Brock remembered the cell phone number and the website. Speeding home, he went to www.CellphoneRegistry.com and entered the number. Although the man had thought he was being smart to give the girl a cell phone number, Brock found his name instantly. Disturbingly, he also found his criminal records and found out he was a convicted sex offender. They immediately called the police, of course, and the man was arrested. Brock couldn't have been more thankful that this website had stopped this man from harassing or doing worse things to other girls Laura's age. Brock never took another call at the park again, either.