
Caught on tape; image courtesy of CNN.com
If you have information please contact the authorities.
Seems that life finally hits home. Carlie Brucia was abducted on Sunday evening while taking a short-cut through a closed car-wash off Bee Ridge Rd, Sarasota, Florida. Krishen did not have an hour between finding out about the news and having his mother emailed to ask about it. Word definitely travels fast these days. Guess it being on CNN helps! There has been an Amber Alert issued for young Carlie Brucia, so hopefully it won’t take long until her safe return.
I will first say that … yes … this is close to home. Not only in town, but directly in our neighbourhood. The McIntosh middle school, the school Carlie attends 6th grade, is not even a mile away from our front door and the car wash where she was apparently abducted is within 4 miles. (see the map)
Generally we live in a nice, quiet neighbourhood. I have felt safe and secure most places within the city. Sarasota has the same sort of feel you get from Victoria, just without the islander touch. The people are friendly and courteous. The city they are working hard to improve the downtown look – and the improvements look nice. Sarasota blends into Bradenton (a more blue collar district) which lies a little to the north. You get a distinctly United States view driving between the two cities; lots of strip malls, billboards, lights, restaurants , signs, etc – like driving down Aurora in Seattle. For some reason it just presents a different feeling than driving down the streets of Vancouver, Kelowna, Calgary, Victoria. Interesting to find that the same style holds from Washington to Florida though. However, there are only a few areas in town that would make me nervous and only a few more that I would not want to raise a child in. And our area did not raise any flags.
I will post more if I hear anything. I wish the family the best of luck in their search and want to let them know that our thoughts are with them.