Family 'had young boy kidnapped' to teach him about stranger danger

A family arranged for their six-year old child to be kidnapped and threatened at gunpoint in order to "teach him a lesson" about the danger posed by strangers, authorities in the US have alleged.

Family members had the young boy abducted in a four hour long ordeal because he was being "too nice" to people he didn't know, Missouri's Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said.

Authorities say the boy's aunt, Denise Kroutil, asked her neighbour Nathan Firoved to help them carry out their plan. The victim's mother, 25-year-old Elizabeth Hupp, and grandmother, 58-year-old Rose Brewer are also said to have been involved.

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Firoved allegedly waited in his van for the boy to return home after school, and then lured him in the vehicle and drove off.

"[He] told the frightened young boy he would never see his mother again and that he would be 'nailed to the wall of a shed'," Missouri TV station KTVI alleges.

When the boy began crying, Firoved then took out a handgun and threatened to shoot him unless he stopped, police said. He then bound the boy's hands and feet, covered his eyes and took him into his family's basement.

The boy's aunt then "pulled the victim's pants down, and began shouting that he could be sold into sex slavery," reports KTVI. "She also allegedly chastised the child for not trying to resist her or Firoved."

The police were alerted to the case after the boy told his teachers at school.

The family members told police that they had simply wanted to teach the child a lesson and did not believe that they had done anything wrong.

The child has since been placed into protective custody. All four now face charges of felony kidnapping and child abuse and are being held on $250,000 bail.