this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
246 points (99.2% liked)

News

33815 readers
3048 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A Texas father used the parental controls on his teenage daughter’s cell phone to find and help rescue her after she was kidnapped at knifepoint while walking her dog on Christmas, authorities allege.

The 15-year-old girl at the center of a case, which quickly gained national attention in the US over the weekend, was reportedly kidnapped in the Houston suburb of Porter. Her parents said she took her dog for a walk and had not returned by the time she was supposed to, according to a statement from the Montgomery county sheriff’s office.

Her father subsequently located her phone through the device’s parental controls, the agency’s statement said. The phone was about 2 miles (3.2km) away from him in a secluded, partly wooded area in neighboring Harris county.

Deputies said the father headed to that spot and found his daughter as well as her dog inside a pickup truck with a partly nude man inside. She then managed to escape with a hand from her father, who called law enforcement officials, said the statement from the Montgomery sheriff’s office.

all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 107 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

The restraint that man showed to not beat the everloving shit out of the guy who kidnapped and presumably intended to rape his daughter is just incredible.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 82 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Friend they are in TEXAS, I'm surprised shithead didn't catch a clip to the dome.

[–] neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 hours ago (3 children)
[–] SteveNashFan@lemmy.world 11 points 5 hours ago

I mean, people still hunt with bolt-actions, so it's plausible he could catch either lol

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago

It's Texas it is entirely possible for them to be using a clip fed gun with an integrated magazine like some bolt actions use, the M1 grande uses, and the oh so glorious Mauser Broomhandle.

Unless he was just casually rocking a M1 Garand, I suppose. That has an internal magazine, and the clip simply holds the rounds in position.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 39 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I’m not surprised he got his kid out first, I’m surprised he called the cops instead of going back there alone.

[–] NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeahhhhh, had he gone back alone, that probably would have been an easy murder charge. However, I can't say I would blame him, nor do I believe I would have the same restraint he showed.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

IMO he'd get a plea bargain. To wit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jeffery_Doucet

Plauché was initially charged with second-degree murder [Of Doucet], but agreed to a plea bargain in which he pleaded no contest to manslaughter. He was sentenced to seven years' suspended sentence, with five years' probation and 300 more hours of community service, which he completed in 1989.

[–] VeganBtw@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago

That's still a lot of time

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Under Texas law, aggravated kidnapping cases in general can carry at least five years in prison. And many cases involving indecency with a child generally can carry at least two years imprisonment along with sex offender registration.

Texas laws are fucking insane. 5 years for aggravated kidnapping? What a shithole.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 42 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (3 children)

minimum 5 years. Maximum is life.

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago

No! Shithole!

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Yes minimum. That means it is possible that the person who kidnapped your child will be back out of prison in 5 years. Thats no good.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Minimum sentences are there for a lower bound for the least bad version of a crime. "Aggravated kidnapping" would also be using a weapon to force a guy to drive you to where your stolen car is and give it back. The thirst for higher and higher minimum sentences because otherwise a judge is going to let a bad guy be set free after "only" a half decade is childish and has caused immense harm to our society.

[–] techt@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

The bloodthirsty pursuit of vengeance masquerading as "justice".

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

Yet most kidnappings are custody disagreements. It’s quite possible for a kidnapping to be a desperate parent wanting to be reunited with their kid. I’m not excusing such a choice but clearly that can be a mitigating factor and there might even be no danger or trauma to the kid.

Any time you insist on harsh minimum sentences for a crime, you potentially cause harm to cases where the crime isn’t as cut and dry

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago

That's ridiculous. It's possible the jury finds him not-guilty - does that mean you want people executed by police?

This is the penalty for a "class 1 felony" across the board. Not just this crime. So murder, etc.

Just because it's possible doesn't' mean its likely. You want the judge and jury to have a wide range of options to handle many circumstances. What if a mother who locks her autistic child in her room is found guilty of "kidnapping" even though she was acting in her child's best interest albeit in a way that was damaging? You may not want to punish her the same as a guy who grabbed a young girl off the street.

The vast majority of kidnappings are custody disputes between parents. For instance, one parent has custody, the other has visitation. And the parent with visitation takes the child out of town to see their grandparents, without asking permission first. Under the rules of their custody agreement, that is kidnapping.

Is that worth life in prison? Or even 5 years? Minimum sentences are the “zero tolerance policy for fighting in school” of the legal world. They remove any nuance or discretion, just so some lawmaker can say they are tough on crime.

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

And that's for normies, just be rich or a Republican and you have no consequences ever.

[–] baines@lemmy.cafe 5 points 7 hours ago

do it enough and they make you president

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago

Meanwhile if I had 2g of weed concentrate, the same 2g I just bought at the local dispensary on my lunch break, I'd be looking at a felony with at least a year in prison and a minimum $20k fine.

[–] b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 6 hours ago

When I read the story I’d assumed she’d been kidnapped by ICE. After reading it I’m still thinking it was an ICE agent.

[–] kelpie_returns@lemmy.world 27 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Porter Texas is the single most vile place I have ever had the displeasure of spending time in. Its primary exports are meth and x-phobes, and random violence is basically a daily threat if you are not white. I am not white and got called every fucking slur you can imagine in my brief time there, among other forms of hostility. By complete strangers. Many of the slurs didn't even apply to my own ethnic background. Like, very obviously didnt apply either, and it was regular enough that I am sure it was partly intentional.

And tbc, this would happen at random, on the streets. People would start yelling this garbage at strangers out of fucking nowhere. Sometimes accompanied by a throwing of whatever literal garbage they had available atm and a little "go back to your own country". I am literally from here in just about every conceivable way lol.

This was all pre-2016 too, so I'd be surprised if it hasn't gotten much, much worse by now. Nothing good comes out of Porter Texas.

I once shared a story here about neo-nazis kicking down my front door. Those nazis were based in Porter and kidnapping girls in ways that this story definitely echoes. Just a bad, bad place to find yourself on so many gd levels.

[–] regedit@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

I'm sorry you went through that. Hopefully, wherever you reside now has more love and compassion. If nothing else, I hope you are safe!

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

These people vote, and their vote is worth like 4 of ours

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

"Giovanni Rosales Espinoza"

Cue Trump complaining about immigrants in 3-2-1...

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago

I don't think you have to wait, it just flows

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Texas, where you are such a rugged individual that law enforcement is only set dressing. You got this! (^Except ^school ^shootings, ^where ^cops ^shoot ^kids ^and ^stop ^the ^parents)

Just a heads up, to get superscripted text you need to wrap the text in carets. ^This^ turns into ^this^

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

When I read the headline, I immediately thought of ICE, and when I read the post, I thought of the US president...

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Oh, it sounds like the dog survived too! I'm kind of surprised; usually stories like this are like "he shot the dog and kidnapped the girl" but instead they were both found.