Kidnap staged ‘to teach boy a lesson’

A six-year-old boy’s mother, grandmother, and aunt have been charged after officials said that they staged his kidnapping to teach him about possible danger from strangers.

The sheriff’s office in Lincoln County, Missouri, said the three enlisted help from the aunt’s co-worker, who lured the child into his truck after he got off a school bus.

Officials said the man told the boy he would not “see his mummy again”, and that he would be “nailed to the wall of a shed”, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

He showed the boy a handgun in an effort to make him stop crying, authorities said.

The man tied the boy’s hands and feet with plastic bags and blindfolded him, the sheriff’s office said, before he drove him to his home.

Officials said the boy was kept in the basement for a while, before being untied and lectured about staying away from strangers.

The mother is charged with kidnapping and abuse or neglect. The others are charged with kidnapping, felonious restraint and abuse or neglect. All four are being held in jail .

The boy is in protective custody.