On a recent Tuesday evening, a very young girl was walking down Bent Street completely by herself — no adults or friends or any supervision — not a safe situation for such a little kid, likely no older than 5 years old.

I happened to run into her across the street from our office — she was quite happy to say hello and to let me know she was out for a walk by herself.

Keep in mind, I’m a tall guy with a beard and can appear a little intimidating (or so I tell myself while lifting weights at the Johnson Fitness Center). Based on appearances, I am the last guy any kid should run to for help.

However, I’m actually a certified school teacher (last I checked anyway) with a pretty good background in developmental child psychology.

I may not be a practicing educator or a parent, but this little tyke was way too young to be out on her own. Her brain is still developing, and she had no way of knowing not to tell me, a complete stranger, that she was out for a walk by herself. (As she so eagerly demonstrated.)

Luckily she knew to look both ways before crossing the street as she skipped along her way. Meanwhile, I was debating what to do.

Do I escort her home?

Do I just let her frolick off to who knows where?

If I were her dad, I wouldn’t want her out on her own. But, I also wouldn’t want some crazy-looking young guy showing up at the front door uninvited with my kid.

Back when I was going through teacher training, it was drilled into every aspiring male teacher’s head that under no circumstances should a male teacher ever be behind closed doors with one student and to always leave a door open or have a female around. It is unfortunate that this is the kind of world we live in, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Realizing that unless they knew me, I’m the last guy any parent would want escorting their kid home, I got Ilene Olson to join me in getting the kid home safe — but she was already a few blocks down the street. Ilene got in her car and I stayed on foot to try to find her, and we both failed.

So who found the kid?

Chances are good she got home safely since no reports of child abduction have come in since then. After all, Powell is a small town and that means it is safe, right?

Wrong.

This misconception is precisely the mindset that allows predators to commit their heinous acts.

There are 11 registered sex offenders living within the Powell city limits according to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. In Cody, there are 12 registered sex offenders, two in Ralston, two in Byron and many more have incomplete address information just within Park County.

These are just the registered ones, meaning they have been caught and are up to date with their registration. There’s no way of knowing how many are out there who haven’t registered or just haven’t been caught yet. It’s a safe bet there are more.

It is worth noting that not all of them are male, some are female. Appearances can be deceiving. Many of them appear to be perfectly normal people — someone any kid could trust.

What is to stop them from picking up that unattended kid?

Nothing.

Who would witness the abduction?

Nobody.

Would a bystander even know it was an abduction?

Probably not.

Kids trust adults, they pop into vehicles all the time so there’d be no way of knowing the driver wasn’t a relative or a babysitter.

This is bad parenting at its worst. A little independence is a good thing, but too much of it can be deadly.

It would be a different story if that little girl had been out with a group of older kids since there is safety in numbers. Or even if she was heading straight to the park to meet with a group.

But in this case, she was just strolling around downtown, striking up conversations with strangers like myself outside of the bars.

I’m not saying kids should stay inside, or be limited to the confines of their own backyards. But, going out on their own with no concept of “stranger danger” or someone to at least make sure their afternoon adventure doesn’t turn into an emergency situation would be a good idea.

Besides, no parent would want a random guy wrangling their stray kids.