History Main / TheKindnapper

* ''Literature/TheSyrenaLegacy'': In ''Of Triton'', [[spoiler:the Syrena princess Nalia has spent the last seventy years living on land and thinking Grom, the Syrena she loved, was dead. When Galen blows Nalia's cover and then leaves her with Rayna while he fetches Grom, Nalia thinks that Grom is actually an imposter who means her and Emma harm. She chloroforms Emma and Rayna and leaves Rayna BoundAndGagged while she takes Emma on an involuntary road trip. When Emma tries to contact Galen, Nalia thinks Galen has manipulated her and supervises her more strictly so she can't do it again. The two of them spend several days driving from one dumpy motel to another before Rachel tracks them down.]]

* In the crossover fic ''Fanfic/TheDragonAndTheButterfly'', Stoick and Gobber travel to the Encanto with the intention of finding Hiccup and bringing him home, believing that it's for his own good. They have no idea that Hiccup and Toothless have been HappilyAdopted by the Madrigals, and that going back to Berk is the last thing they want to do.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "Surro-Gate", Stan kidnaps Greg and Terry's newborn daughter with the intention of taking her to Nebraska (where gay people "have no rights") to be raised by a heterosexual couple, because he thinks that a same-sex couple can't healthily raise a child (and that gays having children will result in horses eating each other). On the way he meets a pair of well-adjusted children whose parents are a [[HasTwoMommies lesbian couple]] and realises that he's wrong (and also notices that none of the horses are eating each other). Notably, this is one of the few lessons Stan learns that [[AesopAmnesia actually sticks]].

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS04E16 Right Next Door]]," a hypocritical single, mother running a flower shop kidnaps the daughter of her employee after the woman gets divorced. During interrogation, her argument for not revealing the child's location is that the woman is now a single, working mother so she can't take good care of her little girl. As it turns out, the boy she's raising is not her own... she'd kidnapped him years earlier, too.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS04E16 Right Next Door]]," a hypocritical single, mother running a flower shop kidnaps the daughter of her employee after the woman gets divorced. During interrogation, her argument for not revealing the child's location is that the woman is now a single, working mother so she can't take good care of her little girl.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Josef Fritzl infamously lured his 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth into the house cellar, where he locked her up in the bunker he had been building for several years beforehand, and raped her enough times that she gave birth to seven children and had one miscarriage. He says that he kept Elisabeth down there to keep her away from the outside world and considers himself to have been a good father to the incestuous, ill-gotten family he kept down there. His descriptions of his relationship with Elisabeth and the three of their children he kept in the bunker make it ''seem'' like they were a second nuclear family for him, with Elisabeth as the wife to whom he brought flowers and with whom he had consensual sex.
* There are several examples of parents hiring "deprogrammers" to kidnap their children from cults and religious sects with the intent to un-{{brainwash}} them. Unsurprisingly, this practice has been used as a source of drama in multiple works.
* In January 2010, a group of American Baptists were caught attempting to take 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic, despite their protests and requests to be taken to their parents and relatives.
* This was the ''modus operandi'' of Escuela Caribe, a conservative Christian school in the Dominican Republic. Parents had "troubled" kids sent there for offenses such as listening to the wrong music and being gay, whether the kids wanted to go or not. Due to being in another country without access to passports, with different laws about age, the kidnapped kids couldn't easily leave unless the school let them. Officially, the company that owned it closed down, though the new company running the school continues to employ some of the same workers there.
** Ditto the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lan_School Élan School]], which operated from 1970 to ''2011''. Parents would pay to have their children kidnapped and brainwashed into being "good kids", with the methods (public beatings by other students, public shamings by other students, solitary confinement, encouraging the teenagers to rat each other out as proof of their loyalty to Élan) kept secret from them. A survivor documented the horrors in comic form [[https://elan.school/ here]]. In comic 40, the now-escaped survivor goes to a library and discovers that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon The Church of Synanon]] used essentially the same brainwashing techniques.
** "Escort" or "transport" services like these are used or recommended by many "troubled teen" programs, and are one of the biggest [[https://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/wiki/redflags red flags]] that the program in question is likely going to be abusive. Being "transported" is highly traumatic for a child, is highly damaging to the trust between parent and child, and is often the very first taste of the nightmare that the child will experience upon arriving in an abusive "teen treatment" program. [[https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1270-6-shocking-realities-secret-troubled-teen-industry.html A survivor of one such program who gave her account on Cracked]] described the experience of being "transported" as "like being Liam Neeson's daughter in ''Film/{{Taken}}'', if it had turned out later that Liam Neeson arranged the whole thing."
* In March 2011, [[http://www.dreamindemon.com/community/threads/babysitter-teresa-mcgee-accused-of-kidnapping-says-she-was-protecting-boys.44704/ Teresa McGee]] kidnapped two boys she had babysat with the intention of protecting them from their father.
* Many Native Americans had to teach their children how to hide so they wouldn't be abducted by white people and taken to boarding schools with the intention of assimilating them into white culture by way of separating them from their tribes and families and subjecting them to abuse for failing to adopt white ways.
** There are also several accounts of the reverse, in which colonial children were taken as ReplacementGoldfish for Native American family members killed in the war with the whites and forced to adopt Native American culture. However, some of the later apparently became [[UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome happy with the situation and unwilling to return.]] One of the most famous of these was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Kanenstenhawi_Williams Eunice Williams]]. Captured by the Mohawk at the age of seven, she was quickly assimilated into their tribe; she later refused, on multiple occasions, to rejoin her Puritan family.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgardo_Mortara Edgardo Mortara]] was forcibly removed from his Jewish family by police after he was baptized by a Catholic servant. This was in the Papal States, which did not allow non-Christians to raise a Christian child (as he was considered after baptism)-even if it was their ''own'' child.
[[/folder]]

* In January 2010, a group of American Baptists were caught attempting to take 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican republic, despite their protests and requests to be taken to their parents and relatives.

Expect the Kindnapper's victim(s) to be in a GildedCage to highlight his good intentions. The Kindnapper usually intends to [[AbductionIsLove woo his victim]], [[KnightTemplar make them a better person]], [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul make them happy]], [[CaptiveDate take them on a date]], or even just to keep them in the GildedCage "for their own protection"! Scenarios where the victim(s) come to think of their kidnapper as a benefactor go under StockholmSyndrome. Sometimes the Kindnapper's victim(s) develop StockholmSyndrome, but not always. the Kindnapper thinks of himself as kind and that's all that counts in order for him to count as one. The most sympathetic portrayals of this kind of kindnapping will highlight the Kindnapper's good intentions, but also make it clear that abducting people is no way to actually be kind. This type is otherwise known as '''The Obviously Misguided Kindnapper''' due to the dearth of portrayals of this type of kindnapping being portrayed as actually benevolent. Many of those that you will find in the RealLife section are of this type.

** There are also several accounts of the reverse, in which colonial children were taken as ReplacementGoldfish for Native American family members killed in the war with the whites and forced to adopt Native American culture. However, some of the later apparently became [[StockholmSyndrome happy with the situation and unwilling to return.]] One of the most famous of these was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Kanenstenhawi_Williams Eunice Williams]]. Captured by the Mohawk at the age of seven, she was quickly assimilated into their tribe; she later refused, on multiple occasions, to rejoin her Puritan family.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "A Bird In The Hoof", Fluttershy kidnaps Princess Celestia's pet phoenix, thinking it to be sick and planning to nurse it back to health. It's just getting ready to regenerate.

* [[Wrestling/AngelaFong Black Lotus]] was kidnapped by [[Wrestling/TrevorMann Prince Puma]] on Wrestling/LuchaUnderground and given to Dragon Azteca. Dragon Azteca explained that if Lotus was insistent on fighting WrestlingMonster Mantaza, she was going to need [[YouAreNotReady a lot more training]]. After seeing what Dragon Azteca, and Mantaza for that matter, were capable of, Lotus agreed to be taught in the ways of Lucha Libre, though she didn't have the patience train long enough to be truly ready...[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Amical of ''Webcomic/{{morphE}}'' acquired a group of potential students and after their initiation exam, told them that they would have to live with him and learn magic or try to leave and see their slave collars explode around their neck. It is clear that this is not the first group of captives he has acquired and he acts very confident in believing that they will warm to him in time.
[[/folder]]

*

* An unusual variant happens in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/25895518 Training Billy]]'' in that [[Film/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]] came to Olympus of his own free will after receiving a summons from Zeus since all parties involved thought it would just be a simple meeting and Billy/Shazam would be back home by the next day. However, that idea gets thrown out the window when the gods find out that their new champion is a 12-year-old boy and refuse to let him leave Olympus before he's properly trained in his mortal form, which is done out of concern for Billy, since they don't want an untrained child fighting evil.

* ''Film/BlackSnakeMoan''. A man takes a woman prisoner because he believes it is his spiritual duty to heal her of her sinful ways and refuses to release her until he does so.

* ''Tie Me Up!Tie Me Down!'' (Spanish: ¡Átame!) - a 1990 Spanish dark romantic comedy written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Creator/AntonioBanderas is a recently released psychiatric patient who kidnaps Victoria Abril - a porn star with an on/off heroin habit - in the belief that he alone can make her happy and loved and that his destiny is to marry her and father her children.

* ''Film/TheOldGuard''. When Nile Freeman dies of a slashed throat while serving with the US Marines in Afghanistan [[HealingFactor only to come back to life]], the rest of the immortal soldiers dream about it and realise they have to bring her into the fold. So Andy travels to Afghanistan, breaks into a Coalition base, pistolwhips Nile into unconsciousness and drives off with her in a stolen Hummer. When Nile wakes up and tries jumping out of the Hummer, Andy shoots her in the head as well. While this helps convince Nile she is immortal, she has trouble believing that Andy has her best interests at heart.

* In the crossover fic [[Fanfic/TheDragonAndTheButterfly]], Stoick and Gobber travel to the Encanto with the intention of finding Hiccup and bringing him home, believing that it's for his own good. They have no idea that Hiccup and Toothless have been HappilyAdopted by the Madrigals, and that going back to Berk is the last thing they want to do.

** In the fanfic [[Fanfic/HarryTano Harry Tano]], Ahsoka Tano (after being [[TrappedInAnotherWorld zapped from her galaxy by a strange artifact]] and landing in the Dursley house) takes the four-year-old Harry from the Dursleys. It's ultimately a subversion as he goes with her willingly (as she's the first adult he can remember giving him genuine care and affection), and he would have been in much more danger if she'd simply left him there. The Muggle and Wizarding newspapers even praise her as a hero for getting Harry away from the Dursleys.

* ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic'' has the ending [[spoiler:where Giovanni takes Molly away from her home, claiming he's kidnapping her. But in reality, he was sickened by how her family (her father and sister) treated her and expected her to be the responsible one when she is only 12 years old. Lessen when Giovanni asks Molly, long after leaving, if she is truly okay with this, with Molly agreeing to it.]]

* ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic has the ending [[spoiler:where Giovanni takes Molly away from her home, claiming he's kidnapping her. But in reality, he was sickened by how her family (her father and sister) treated her and expected her to be the responsible one when she is only 12 years old. Lessen when Giovanni asks Molly, long after leaving, if she is truly okay with this, with Molly agreeing to it.]]

* Josef Fritzl infamously lured his 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth into the house cellar, where he locked her up in the bunker he had been building for several years beforehand, and raped her enough times that she gave birth to seven children and had one miscarriage. He says that he kept Elisabeth down there to keep her away from the outside world and considers himself to have been a good father to the incestuous, ill-gotten family he kept down there. His descriptions of his relationship with Elisabeth and the three of their children he kept in the bunker make it ''seem'' like they were a second nuclear family for him, [[{{Squick}} with Elisabeth as the wife to whom he brought flowers and with whom he had consensual sex]].

* ''Series:{{Travelers}}'': When Trevor (aka Traveler 115) finds out that [[spoiler:his school guidance counselor, Grace]] is planned to serve as a host for an important programmer from the future, he tries to save her by kidnapping her and bringing her out into the middle of the woods, where the Director won't be able to calculate her location with enough accuracy to overwrite her mind. However, [[spoiler:Grace]] is terrified, especially when Trevor starts talking nonsense (from her perspective) about assassins from the future. She manages to escape and [[spoiler:get ahold of a cell phone to call the police, at which point her location is broadcast and she is immediately overwritten]]. Zigzagged in that Trevor's intentions were definitely noble, but pulling that stunt could have potentially put the safety of the world in danger, and he is appropriately in big trouble for taking that risk.

* There are several examples of parents hiring "deprogrammers" to kidnap their children from cults and religious sects with the intent to un-{{Brainwash|brainwash}} them. Unsurprisingly, this practice has been used as a source of drama in multiple works.

* There are several examples of parents hiring "deprogrammers" to kidnap their children from cults and religious sects with the intent to un-{{brainwash|ed}} them. Unsurprisingly, this practice has been used as a source of drama in multiple works.

* Surprisingly enough, protective custody is attempted [[spoiler: by Chloe, for Marinette, who has come into TheFairFolk's crosshairs]] in ''{{Fanfic/Spellbound}}''. Despite good intentions, it's still a horrible experience and [[PoorCommunicationKills gets interrupted since it looked like a straightforward kidnapping]].