In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, two men kidnapped Erica Pratt, a 7-year-old, in front of her home earlier this week.

She was seen kicking and screaming as she was dragged into their car. She was later on allowed to speak on the phone when her kidnappers called her family for ransom.

Laid on a mattress, bound, with duct tape over her eyes, and left in the basement of an abandoned building, Erica bit her way through the tape, unbound herself, got upstairs, and then started screaming out of a window.

Not the cops, not adults in the neighborhood, but two boys, seeing Erica crying and screaming for help, came to her aid and then went for the authorities.

She is now back home and appears to be okay.

More here.

Way to go! What a kid!

I wonder how long she will be safe. Her mother and father are in jail on drug charges, one uncle was murdered in a drug deal gone sour, another uncle is in prison for murder.

I just hope that Erica will remian safe.

And she is being raised by a loving grandmother and several living doting uncles. One of them was shown holding her in a cute clip from CNN.

Erica will be all right. She's clearly smart, plucky, level-headed, and cute as at least three or four buttons. And let us not forget that at this moment she is safer than many white suburbanite children. Life in the inner city can be horrible, as this episode shows, but many rise above it. I think Erica will be one of these.