My friend told me this incredible kidnap story that sounds like a thriller plot. According to her this really happened, although I could not find any reference to this particular case on the internet. Since the story was incomplete, I filled in a lot of the blanks. It’s called artistic license or fiction. Not to be confused with real life. Or as Mark Twain said: don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

A young man, let’s call him Joey, in upstate New York who was with a small gang of misfits was a bystander in a liquor store heist by his friends. A struggle ensued and a store employee was killed. Afraid of being implicated, Joey ran to the home where his girlfriend, Naomi, was babysitting a small girl. Being just 18 himself and Naomi 16, they acted on impulse. Joey told her of the heist gone wrong and in order to evade the subsequent police hunt they decided to run at a moment’s notice. Joey thought it a good idea to take the toddler along and pretend they were a young family and were able to slip under the radar. They headed north and made it across the Canadian border as a young family. This was in 1999, before 9/11, when border security between the US and Canada was relatively lax.

Somehow the young make-believe family ended up in a small community in northern Alberta where Joey, who looked older than his years, took on several menial jobs over the years and eventually became the manager of a gas station that also had a gas bar and restaurant. He was able to keep the three of them financially afloat. Eventually they were able to buy a small bungalow in a cul-de-sac and proceeded to live a very quiet, middle-class life, respected by the neighbours and the community to which they now belonged. The young girl which they named Leslie went to school and grew up like any other child, firmly convinced that her two guardians, Joey and Naomi were her parents.