A Swedish father, Torkel Kristoffers, with a newly sprouted beard and a little time on his hands in the middle of what is normally a work day for him, went home to take his son on a playdate. His young son Axel, just two years old, asked daddy to carry him to the car in a canvas grocery bag. Dad happily obliged. Toddlers make quirky requests all the time.
The result: Two police cars converged upon father and son after neighbors called the police to report a strange man kidnapping the boy in question.
The man normally goes about clean shaven. He looks so dramatically different when he grows a beard that his neighbors, whom he sees regularly, simply did not recognize him. When combined with the fact that they thought he was at work and the oddity of seeing him carrying the child in a canvas bag, they leapt to the conclusion that they were witnessing a kidnapping in progress. Like good neighbors, they want to look out for the welfare of the family and promptly notified the authorities.
In a surprisingly light-hearted tone, he posted about the incident on Facebook, suggesting in his native tongue that it was perhaps time for him to shave off the newly grown facial hair that led to the incident in question. Later, the Swedish police went on record with a public statement about the incident. They assured citizens that carrying a child in a bag is not a violation of any laws.