Hero Mom Rescues Her Kidnapped Son By Wearing A Genius Disguise
Whether you're overprotective or laid-back, every mom has one thing in common: Strength. You need it if you want to be a mom because having a child comes with too many fears to count. There's the fear that your kid will be bullied, fear that your kid will get sick, the terrible list goes on. Of course, then there’s The Fear, the one some moms can barely bear thinking about at all.
Kidnapping is truly every parents' nightmare. This was mom Kalli Atteya’s biggest worry as well, one she saw come true before her very eyes. But instead of giving up, Kalli did what most moms would do: She hopped on a plane and donned a clever disguise, determined to see her son again.
How Did She Get Here?
Of all the places Kalli Atteya thought she’d end up, the side of the road in the middle of Egypt wasn’t on her list. Of course, meeting a man like Mohamed Atteya wasn’t in the plan, either. The day they first met, everything changed...
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Kalli and Mohamed Atteya
In 1999, Kalli was on track to get her Master’s degree in Education when she met Atteya, who was working in a restaurant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They got married a year later, but according to Kalli, that’s when their love story took a turn.
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Suddenly A Single Mom
“Three months after our boy was born, he left,” Kalli said of Atteya. Kalli found herself suddenly alone with her newborn son, Niko. She was thrust into the role of a single mom, no matter how hard Kalli fought for her marriage to survive.
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A Fateful Mistake
Then, the truth came out: “Basically, he married me for a visa,” Kalli revealed. When their divorce was finally granted in 2005, Atteya moved to Egypt, though Kalli tried to keep him in Niko’s life. This ended up being a fateful mistake.
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En Route To Egypt
You see, in July of 2011, Atteya told Kalli that his mother was dying, and that her final wish was for Niko to see her. The problem? Atteya’s mother lived all the way in Egypt. Still, Kalli knew what she had to do.
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Car Trouble?
Kalli and Niko flew all the way to Egypt with Kalli’s sister, Maria, in tow. When Atteya picked them up in a taxi, all three climbed in...but minutes later, as the family was traveling down a lonely dirt road, the car suddenly started to sputter.
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Mohamed Kidnapped Niko
Atteya complained of car trouble and pulled over. According to Kalli, that’s when everything changed. Atteya forced Kalli and Maria out of the car, slammed the door, and immediately disappeared down the road, taking Niko with him.
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Terrifying Moment
Kalli described the moment in terrifying detail. “[Niko] was pounding on the back window, asking, screaming for me and his aunt,” Kalli said. But all the two women could do was chase the taxi until it was gone, leaving only tire tracks in its wake.
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Abandoned In Egypt
Abandoned in an unfamiliar country, Kalli and Maria tried not to panic. Kalli knew this wasn’t a mistake. As much as she had once loved Mohamed as her husband, there was no denying that he played a much different role now: Niko’s kidnapper.
Dangerous Revolution
Kalli immediately contacted the local authorities, but it wasn’t long before they realized the police were no help. See, there was another element to Niko’s kidnapping that was greatly complicating things: In 2011, Egypt was in the midst of a revolution.
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The Police Are No Help
Kalli had no doubt that this revolution would inhibit the police’s search...and that it probably had something to do with why Atteya kidnapped Niko in the first place. Still, this information didn’t get Kalli any closer to locating her son, so she made some calls.
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Wasting Time And Money
When the local police couldn’t help her, she contacted private detectives. But as the months passed and still Niko was nowhere to be found, even the most experienced (and expensive) detectives were forced to return to Kalli empty handed.
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"I had nothing to lose"
Kalli had nowhere else to turn...until she realized something. If detectives couldn’t help her, then she’d just have to take matters into her own hands. “Some people will say I was crazy,” Kalli said. “I had already lost everything. I had nothing to lose.”
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A Mother's Love
Some people would find it crazy that she made four trips to Egypt to search for Niko, but if you ask a mother, they probably wouldn’t see it as crazy at all. A mother’s love stretches far and wide, even all the way to Egypt…
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"A living death"
“To me, it’s like a living death,” Kalli described of life without Niko. “You know, I’m walking, I’m breathing, but it’s nothing. The emptiness.” After two years of hoping, crying, and exhaustive searches, however, Kalli discovered that hope wasn’t lost after all.
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Finally Finding Hope
Despite the enormous financial toll, Kalli decided to hire one last private investigator to help her navigate the unfamiliar Egyptian landscape. This, along with her own determination, finally gave Kalli the lead she was searching for.
Throwing Caution To The Wind
She and the private investigator tracked Niko’s whereabouts down to Alexandria, Egypt. Once they knew his general location, Kalli knew how close she was to seeing her son again...so she couldn’t help but throw caution to wind.
Kalli's Genius Disguise
While disguised as an Egyptian woman, Kalli spent months following her ex-husband and son around Alexandria. She went back and forth between wearing a burqa and a niqab, each time just trying to shield her face from her ex while seeing if Niko was safe.
Waiting For The Right Moment...
Every time she saw Niko in person, it took everything she had to stick to her plan. “I came so close to my son, and I could not touch him,” she later said. Kalli knew patience was key; she had to wait for the right moment to act.
Kalli To The Rescue
And on March 14th, 2013, Kalli finally made her move. It must have been strange from Niko’s perspective: As he walked into school, a woman shrouded in black grabbed his arm and said something he’d waited two years to hear. “Niko, it’s mommy. Come with me.”
His Mother's Eyes
But as strange as it must have been, Niko wasn’t scared — not when he looked into the eyes of the woman who called herself his mother. He recognized them as his mother’s eyes, which were characteristically blue. With that in mind, he didn’t hesitate.
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"Get in"
Kalli rushed them over to a waiting rickshaw. “Get in,” she whispered, and Niko did just that. He was once again being shepherded away from a parent, but this time, he was on his way to safety...at least, that’s what they hoped.
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The Truth Comes Out
As Kalli held Niko close to her, she finally learned why her ex-husband had kidnapped her son. Niko told her that his father wanted to “make him a Muslim” because American society was "rotting." Atteya, it turns out, was a dedicated member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Not Necessarily Safe
The duo stayed at a safe house for three weeks before flying home, but just because they were out of arm’s length from Atteya didn’t mean they were safe. Even now, Kalli and Niko keep their address a secret from anyone they don’t trust.
There's Always Hope
Still, Kalli has reason for hope: Mohamed Atteya is wanted for kidnapping a U.S. citizen (AKA Niko), and he’s also wanted for forging documents that lied about Niko’s Egyptian citizenship. Now that Niko is home safe, Kalli just wants to regain a sense of normalcy.
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Mother's Love Has No Bounds
“[Niko] knew that his mother would come for him,” Maria told the press. Niko, of course, was right not to doubt his mother’s dedication to finding him. A mother’s love truly has no bounds...even when the mother herself is the victim of a terrible crime.
Rosalynn McGinnis was supposed to live a normal life: she grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where she spent her days with her brothers at the park, playing the violin, and excelling in school. Still, there was something about Rosalynn that was extra special.
She was one of the most ambitious 10-year-olds at her school. She had dreams of becoming a veterinarian and of teaching violin. But these dreams — and any hope of a normal life — were crushed the day her mother met a man named Henri Piette.
At ten years old, the sexual abuse began. “He was never a stepfather,” Rosalynn said of Henri Piette. “He was a child predator.” Rosalynn would always be haunted by these events — and by the events that would soon take place.
Henri exerted his control over the family by moving them to Wagoner, Oklahoma, far away from the McGinnis’ family and friends. Now they were isolated with Henri, and things were about to take a bizarre turn.
See, Henri attempted to marry Rosalynn when she was 11. The “wedding” took place in a van and was officiated by Henri’s son. Henri then moved them into a small, shabby tent outside of Gore, Oklahoma. He was desperate to be alone with Rosalynn, and to cut the family off from society.
On January 31, 1997, Rosalynn’s hopes for a successful future were officially destroyed when Henri took her from school. “The next thing I know, my mother’s not there, my brothers are not there...and I am by myself with this man,” Rosalynn said.
Gayla made flyers printed with Rosalynn’s description and the plea to "please help find this child." They stopped searching right before Rosalynn's 13th birthday. Her family thought she would be missing forever.
And for a while, this didn’t change. After kidnapping her, Henri stripped Rosalynn of her identity by forcing her to wear glasses and to dye her red hair black. He had them both assume aliases, with Rosalynn as “Stephanie” and himself as “Billy Ira Sloop, Jr.”
When she was 13, Rosalynn ended up miscarrying her first baby. “I don’t even know how any human can do that to a child — what he did to me,” Rosalynn said. Henri then smuggled Rosalynn into Mexico, and it was there, when she was just 15, that Rosalynn gave birth to her first child.
They lived in poverty without the basic necessities new mothers require, like gas, heat, and other utilities. Still, one by one, Rosalynn continued to have babies. Henri spent what little money they had on drugs and alcohol, so she had to figure out how to survive on nothing.
She begged on the street for money, and even sold ice cream just to scrape by. Henri was also getting more violent: allegedly, the violence escalated from beatings to shootings, and Henri once sliced Rosalynn’s arm so badly that it cut down to the bone. Life was beyond bleak for Rosalynn...until she met Ian and Lisa.
The British-American couple often saw Rosalynn and her kids at the grocery store, and they soon struck up a friendship. “They just wanted anybody to talk to because it was not something that they were allowed to do,” Lisa said of Rosalynn and her kids. Unfortunately, this brief hope for Rosalynn wouldn’t last.
Always on the move, Henri moved the family to a more remote location in the Oaxaca mountains, once again cutting Rosalynn off from any familiar faces. Here, she couldn’t even beg for money — they were all just trapped. All seemed lost.
Except, unbeknownst to Henri, Rosalynn maintained communication with Ian and Lisa. Though they did not immediately realize that something was amiss, when the couple visited Rosalynn at her new home in 2016, they saw the truth of her situation.
When Lisa and Ian went inside the ramshackle home, what they saw was horrific: three “stalls” instead of bedrooms, holes in the walls, and “very, very thin...foam exercise mats” for beds, Lisa described. Rosalynn and the kids were no longer just living in poverty. They were living in hell.
Lisa eventually learned Henri’s real age, (62), which was when she did the math: If Rosalynn’s oldest child was 17, that meant she must have been only 14 or 15 when she gave birth to him. Lisa told Ian, “This is wrong. There’s something seriously wrong.”
Later, while Rosalynn was recovering from gallbladder surgery at home, Henri became belligerent and ordered her to do housework. That’s when Rosalynn had an epiphany. “I knew that if I didn’t get out of there, I’d either go insane or I would end up dying and leaving my kids with that man,” she said.
When Henri was passed out, Rosalynn grabbed her kids and escaped to Ian and Lisa’s house. Thanks to them, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Rosalynn ended up legally crossing the border into the U.S. Still, Rosalynn kept looking over her shoulder in fear of seeing Henri on her heels.
Every night, according to Rosalynn, she had nightmares of a menacing Henri standing over her bed. She knew the only way she would be free of him was if she shared her story with the world and stood with other victims of abuse. She also hoped her story would bring Henri to justice.
On June 13, 2019, Henri was found guilty of kidnapping, engaging in a sexual act with a minor, and a myriad of other charges. During the trial, Rosalynn told the world her devastating story — and once again proved her resilient nature. While the rest of the world applauds Rosalynn’s bravery, she can only think of one thing.
Her freedom. “It’s a miracle I’m sitting here today,” Rosalynn said. She has hope for a better future, propelled by a promising GoFundMe page that has already raised $50,000. Rosalynn knew she would never get her childhood back, but she could try to salvage what was left of a childhood for her kids.
Rosalynn tapped into incredible strength we she picked her kids up and ran out the door. It was a calm, cool, collectedness similar to that shown by Cheryl Treadway on a warm spring day in May 2015, when her boyfriend, Ethan Nickerson, pulled a large knife on her.
The couple's three young children were at school when the 26-year-old grabbed the blade and confiscated his long-time girlfriend's cellphone. He kept Cheryl locked up tight — so she started thinking of ways to escape.
Without her cellphone, she couldn't call the police, and screaming for help, she knew, would likely not have the results she wanted. So she appealed to Ethan's sense of fatherhood: she had to pick the kids up from school.
Ethan agreed. But, he insisted, she couldn't go alone, which was why he accompanied her to the elementary school to pick the kids up. They all rode home, probably in silence, the kids in the backseat unaware their father had just pulled a knife on mom.
Back at home, Cheryl was in an even worse place than she started. Not only was she stuck with knife-wielding Ethan, but now her three kids were, too. She couldn't pick them up and run — but what could she do?
Cheryl thought hard, knowing the costs of a misstep. And then an idea hit her. She found Ethan and, once again, appealed to his fatherhood. "The kids are hungry," she said. "Let's order a pizza. Let's get them some food."
Ethan considered this for a moment. Maybe he felt a rumble in his own stomach, but he agreed. The kids were hungry. Pizza would do the trick. He relented and let Cheryl use her cellphone — but only to order a pizza through the Pizza Hut app.
Cheryl had her phone back, but she couldn't call the police. What if he heard her talking? What if he checked her call history? Would he snap and use the knife he kept on his person? She had to be clever. So she was.
See, when you ordered a pizza through Pizza Hut's phone app, there was a comment section to include special instructions — you could ask for extra pepperoni or leave a door code for your apartment. Cheryl used this to her advantage.
Along with an order of a large pepperoni pizza, Cheryl included a note to employees in the comments section. It read, "Please help. Get 911 to me. 911hostage help!" She placed her order, closed her eyes, and waited. That was all she could do.
Meanwhile, employees at the local Pizza Hut gathered around the computer aggregating online and app orders, all fixated on Cheryl's message: Please help. In 28 years on the job, restaurant manager Candy Hamilton had never seen anything like it.
Inside her home, meanwhile, Cheryl waited by the window, watching. She didn't know if her message was well-received at the Pizza Hut. The feeling of dread must've been palpable. What if they thought her call was a joke? A prank?
But because Cheryl frequently ordered from that Pizza Hut, the employees recognized her name. They knew this was no joke. "We didn't even question it," Candy, below, said. "We immediately called 9-1-1."
The call reached the Highlands County Sheriff's Office, which dispatched Lieutenant Curtis Ludden and his deputies to the home of Cheryl Treadway and Ethan Nickerson. They parked their cruisers out front.
The relief Cheryl felt as the police arrived must've been euphoric. But still, she had three children to escort from the home before Ethan noticed the police. If he did, would he put that knife to use? Salvation was so close, but only if she played this smart.
With her youngest child in her arms, Cheryl wrenched open the front doors, running for the police. Before she could catch her breath, she told Lt. Ludden, below, that her other two kids were stuck in the house with a knife-wielding Ethan.
Though she didn't know it at the time, Cheryl was incredibly lucky. You see, Lt. Ludden happened to be the lead negotiator on the crisis team. He'd talked down any number of people in his career. Ethan, he knew, would be another tally mark.
The deputies escorted Cheryl to safety, and Lt. Ludden went to work on Ethan. After 20 minutes, the lieutenant convinced him to drop his knife and surrender. Officers recovered the other two children unharmed. Cheryl and her kids were finally safe.
Afterward, Lt. Ludden celebrated Cheryl's smarts. "I don't know if I ever would have thought of it," he said. "I mean it's just something that she did so naturally. The boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner."
Candy — the manager of the Pizza Hut — praised the mother, too. She's "the hero in this situation," Candy said. "She just thought outside the box...I think that's amazing." Incredibly pizza saved another life just a few years later.
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