A parent never wants to imagine what would happen if their child were confronted with someone meaning them harm. We do everything in our power to mitigate the risks of things like that happening, but scary situations still occur that can leave a family irreparably broken.
A Michigan family had an extremely close call when their 8-year-old daughter was nearly abducted while playing in their backyard. The little girl was outside picking mushrooms when a 17-year-old boy picked her up with his hand over her mouth. Owen Burns, 13, was inside playing video games when he heard his sister scream. A lot of kids in his situation may not have known what to do, but Owen quickly jumped into action.
The teen saw what was happening out the window and picked up his slingshot and a marble before taking aim at the boy who had his sister.
Amazingly, Owen was able to strike the boy in the head with a marble on his first try. This prompted the would-be abductor to release the girl, who was then able to run away while her brother reloaded his slingshot with a rock, hitting the older teen in the midsection this time. What’s most shocking of all is Owen hasn’t had any practice with aiming his slingshot, yet both of the projectiles he used hit the suspect.
“I kinda thought he was lying, but when the police finally confirmed it and said that he did hit him twice and he did make both shots, I was quite impressed,” his mother, Margaret Burns told NBC News.
Watch the entire interview below to hear Owen’s advice to parents: