Safety Tips
If you notice your child is missing while you are in a Hobby Lobby or Mardel store, immediately notify the nearest store associate. They will issue a "Code Adam." Code Adam is a special alert issued over the public address system which calls on all the associates to stop their work and look for the child.
Here are some ways to help protect your child:
- Never leave your shopping cart unattended while your child is seated in it.
- Never leave your child sitting in the car while you go into a store, no matter how brief your visit will be.
- Don't let your child roam around alone in a store or mall.
- Prearrange a meeting spot with your child in case you get separated in a public place.
- If your child disappears in a public place, immediately notify a security guard, store manager, or clerk.
- Teach your child to always check first with a parent/guardian before going anywhere. Your child should always tell you where he/she is going, how he/she will get there, who he/she is going with and when he/she will return.
- Instruct your child to ask for your permission before getting into a car or leaving with anyone - even someone your child knows.
- If accosted by a stranger, teach your child to shout, "This person is not my father (or mother)." A child who only struggles and yells may simply appear to be having a tantrum.
- Caution your child to stay alert, walk confidently and pay attention to his/her surroundings.
- Make sure your child knows he/she can't tell what a person is like by their appearance. Even though a person looks friendly, they are still a stranger.
- Teach your child that a stranger is anyone he/she - and you - doesn't know.
- Instruct your child to refuse a stranger's request for help.
- A child is more likely to go with someone who knows his/her name, so refrain from displaying your child's name on clothing or jewelry.
- Assemble an identification packet for your child. Include the child's height, weight, hair and eye colors, dental records and professional fingerprints, hand prints and palm prints and recent pictures of your child in several different positions. Take them once a year for older children, four times a year for preschoolers.
- Make a mental note of what your child is wearing every day.
- Call the police immediately when you notice your child is missing.
Teach your child the following:
- His/her full name, address and phone number.
- Both parents' first and last names.
- Whom to ask for help: anyone in uniform or on the job, a teacher, a store clerk, a waitress. (As a rule, teach your child that the stranger he/she approaches is safer than the stranger that approaches him/her.)