Did A Slingshot Stop An Assailant From Kidnaping a Young Michigan Girl?

Kids have been making and using slingshots since the mid-1800s. Did a Michigan boy use one to fend off a man trying to abduct his sister?

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Slingshots

Slingshots started to show up around the 1860s and were made mostly by young kids using rubber, a small piece of leather, and the fork of a tree branch like in the photo above.

Leave it to kids to find the first use of slingshots to be used for vandalism. It wasn't long before kids and adults found that they could actually hunt with slingshots to get small game such as rabbits, squirrels, grouse, pheasant, quail, and dove.

In the early days of slingshots, they were all homemade. It wasn't until 1918 that the first commercially produced slingshots were made. It wasn't until after World War II that slingshots became popular. Kids still use them today, my son has a much newer version than the old slingshots made of metal material called a wrist rocket that is much faster and more accurate and he loves going around the farm shooting at stuff.

Did a Young Boy Fend Off a Kidnaper With a Slingshot?

It is amazing how resilient and quick-thinking kids can be at times. A young 13-year-old boy in Alpena, Michigan, saw that a man was trying to abduct his 8-year-old sister so he grabbed his slingshot and lit the guy up with shots to the man's head and chest.

According to FOX 17, another family member was able to give police an accurate description of the assailant and police were able to arrest a 17-year-old boy who has since been charged as an adult for attempted kidnapping/child enticement, one count of attempted assault to do great bodily harm less than murder, and one count of assault and battery.