Warning! Alert! Danger! etc.
On today's Very Long Commute, the highway construction sign greeted me with the following ominous message:

CHILD
ABDUCTION
ALERT

then:

1990s
TURQUOISE SEDAN
CALL 911

For some reason, this really really really sent a chill up my spine. This sign is usually reserved for messages like RIGHT LANE CLOSED or ACCIDENT AHEAD or MIGHT AS WELL TURN AND GO BACK HOME, OTHERWISE YOU'LL SIT HERE ON THE FREEWAY ALL DAY.

The abducted child in question is a 4-week-old girl from Abilene, about 100 miles due west of the Very Large Metropolitan Area. News reports relate that the child was snatched from her car seat while her mother went 10 feet away from her open car to return a shopping cart. The mother was dragged by the abductor's car about 30 feet through the Wal-Mart parking lot.

One month old. The child is hungry. The child needs her diaper changed. The child is in the hands of some mad-person who could be anywhere by now. And all of Texas has been asked to look for her and the mid-'90s Buick Skylark or Pontiac Grand Am or Oldsmobile Achieva in which this baby might be riding.

I'm as weary of alerts as the next person. Pollution Alerts, Terrorism Alerts, Severe Thunderstorm Watches ... my brain is becoming numb to all of it. But suddenly, because the flashing highway sign told me to do so, I'm keeping my eye out for a mid-'90s GM sedan.

INSTANT UPDATE: Co-worker two cubes away just said they think they've found her in Quanah, Texas. We'll return shortly.