Walkie-talkies are supposed to be the harmless version of a telephone, allowing people – even children – to talk to each other safely without any outside interference.
But after one mother’s horror experience, you won’t be blamed for hesitating before buying them again.
“The kids were listening.”
Parents are being warned not to buy remote controls for their children after a mother heard an unknown man making moaning noises on the other end.
The Christchurch mother told the New Zealand Herald that she bought the toys from Kmart as Christmas presents and was making dinner when she heard strange noises from the other side of the house that became increasingly creepy.
“I went down to my children’s bedroom and I saw my child’s walkie-talkie in his bed, and the noises were clearly coming from there, and the man was making sexual moaning sounds over the walkie-talkie.” € she said.
“Clear sexual innuendo, just saying things like ‘Do you like sausages? I will come, you will cook my sausage and I will make you eat it. Mmmm, I’m coming for you. I am coming to you now. It continued for several good minutes.â€
Terrified, the mum said she tried to turn off the remote – but she couldn’t.
“From the moment kids started playing with the remote, the power button was just stuck forever. “So I was just running around the house trying to find a screwdriver so I could take the batteries out and, of course, the kids were hearing it,” she said.
She said that given that she has a maximum range of 300 meters on the remote control, she even locked her doors in case the man was nearby. However, local police were able to allay her concerns.
“They explained that with someone else, if they had a stronger radio frequency, they could be further away and send a message, but you just wouldn’t be able to answer them,” she said.
Watch out!
The mother also alerted Kmart to the issue, who she said were “really good” with the issue.
A Kmart spokesperson told news.com.au that the situation was not related to defects in the product itself and was instead a potential risk with any similar communication device.
“Toy-grade radio transceivers comply with public UHF CB radio standards,” the spokesperson said.
“They are designed to operate within a limited frequency range, with a default channel that does not allow users to switch. Random interference is not a defect in the product itself.
“As with any communication device provided to children, we recommend that parents exercise discretion and supervise how their children use the device.”
It’s more common than you think
Because of this, it seems the issue is more common than you might expect.
The mum took to social media to share what had happened, with hundreds of people rushing to comment with similar stories.
An Australian mother also told Kidspot last year that a similar scenario happened to her and her children at a local campsite.
One of her sons and his friend had a remote control each, with a third left at their campsite with their parents. Everything seemed normal, until someone said they heard a voice they didn’t recognize on the channel.
“[My son] said someone had come into the canal and told him to go to the playground,” she says.
“So he went there – which was next to our caravan but we were at someone else’s place at the time – thinking it was one of the parents messing around. He got on the remote and said, “I’m here,” and the person said, “Now go to your caravan.” And Ari answered saying, “I am here, where are you?” And he said something like “I’m bald.” And that was it.â€
Not surprisingly, the remote controls were only used between an adult and a child from that point on during the party.
“We’ve always taught the kids about stranger danger, but there were a lot of conversations that happened with all the kids after that,” says the caring mother of two.
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Image Source : nypost.com