Hudson Valley Mom Warns of Child Abduction Attempt at Supermarket

Update, 5:38PM The woman whose viral Facebook post warned of a possible abduction attempt has updated the social media message to clarify that the circumstances were much more innocuous than she first suspected:

**I spoke with the Trooper who told me he was able to confirm it wasn’t as it seemed- he said the timing of it all and how it looked from my end made sense, but it wasn’t that. He watched the surveillance and saw when we both pulled up and said someone got in the van before I could see. He spoke w/a business manager and it’s a transport van for workers that live in the city and the masks they had on are worn to prevent them from catching diseases from others. The Trooper told me I did the right thing and that he would’ve done the same had he been in my position- he saw us on cam too, it was NOT made up. **

Original story:

A mother is warning about a possible child abduction attempt outside a Hudson Valley supermarket.

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On Sunday before 10 p.m., what's described as an oversized van pulled up towards a woman and her two children in the parking lot at the Hannaford Supermarket in Wappinger Falls, according to a Facebook post. The mother says then a "big door slid open" and she saw "more men than I could count with white masks (inside)."

"They were looking towards us and I yelled to my daughter to run in the store. They closed the door and took off," Mel Lissa wrote in her Facebook post to warn others.

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The mother said the white masks the men were wearing looked like hospital masks, "but much bigger and wider."

The mother said the van took off before she could get a good look at a license plate, but she contacted New York State Police and later spoke with an officer who took down the information.

A spokesperson for New York State Police confirmed to Hudson Valley Post they investigated following the mother's report. Troopers searched the area but couldn't find anything.

Update: Hannaford reached out to State Police to make it clear that they do in fact have video cameras at that location.

Police are determining if the footage will be helpful for their investigation.

A Hannaford spokesperson told Hudson Valley Post to "Please go through the police for any further details or comment."

You can see the full Facebook message here.

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