Parents Hold on Tight After Kidnap Scares : Crime: Mothers bring husbands shopping in fear of couple trying to snatch children. Two more sightings are reported Saturday.

Many parents said they were taking special precautions while shopping Saturday in the wake of four recent attempted kidnapings of babies or toddlers at mini-malls in Buena Park and Cypress.

“It made me feel scared and bring my husband with me grocery shopping,” said Carolyn Harless of Buena Park, whose husband, Jeff, gave up watching the 49ers-Falcons football game on television to help keep tabs on their 5-year-old daughter, Amanda, at Albertson’s market.

It was the same Albertson’s at Valley View Street and Ball Road in Cypress where police said a heavy-set, middle-aged couple tried to abduct a 5-month-old girl and a 3-year-old girl.

Police also reported two other foiled attempts to snatch first a 5-month-old girl and then a brother and sister, aged 2 years and 2 months, at the Ralphs market across the street in Buena Park.

The attempts triggered new fears--and two reported sightings Saturday of the would-be abductors.

Cypress police received an unconfirmed report at 4:37 p.m. that the couple reappeared outside the Albertson’s, but officers who checked the area were unable to find any sign of them, Cypress Police Sgt. John Avila said.

And in San Juan Capistrano, a woman reported that two people who also matched the couple’s description pulled up in front of her house and began talking to her children. When the mother appeared, the couple drove away.

“We’re not totally convinced, but we’re treating this seriously,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. William Francis. “We did an active patrol of the area but didn’t hit pay dirt.”

On Saturday, many shoppers said that although numerous accounts nationwide of kidnapings, child molestations and murders previously had made them cautious, they never had expected that danger lurked so close to home.

“It’s really bad. You can’t find a place to live that is safe,” said Taraneh Smith of Cypress, who said she learned about the attempted kidnapings from her 10-year-old son, Ryan, who had heard about them last week from classmates.

Jacqueline Cloud of Anaheim said fear prompted her to bring her 12-year-old son shopping Saturday so that her 7-week-old daughter wouldn’t be left alone in the shopping cart for even a moment while she loaded grocery bags into her car in the Albertson’s parking lot. “I’m very scared. I’m holding her closer,” she said.

One Cypress woman said she no longer brings her 9-month-old daughter to the shopping center. On Saturday, she was feeling guilty about bringing her 4-year-old son with her to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies, although she had taken the precaution of keeping him corralled in the shopping cart.

“Grandma would kill me if she knew,” said the woman, noting that her mother had called to warn her about being extra careful. “She will fire you,” her son agreed with a smile.

Linda Vernon, assistant manager at a nearby shoe store, said she noticed that many mothers were lining up their children at the curb Saturday and requiring them to hold hands before entering any stores.

All four of the kidnap attempts that began Dec. 1 seemed to target very young children, and police said they are looking for a woman in her 40s with short, curly red hair and an East Coast accent and a portly, balding man in his mid 50s with dark hair. But several parents said they also were fearful for their older offspring. They were very much aware of the recent abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma, who was snatched from her own home during a slumber party.

Jeff and Carolyn Harless said they no longer allow their 9- and 11-year-old daughters to play on the swings and slide in the park next to their home unless they are accompanied by an adult. And Vernon, who is at work when her 16-year-old daughter gets home from school, said she has ordered her daughter to lock the front door as soon as she is inside.

Nor are parents the only ones who are worried. Some children had been informed last week at school about the attempted kidnapings or had received extra lectures from parents about distrusting strangers or had noticed the news vans at the shopping centers. And they were taking it to heart.

Steve Bouman, 36, of Cypress, who was buying cold medicine at the Sav-On Drugs store near Ralphs, said he has noticed that when he brings his three sons to the mall they are sticking closer to his side. “Usually they run up and down the aisles at Sav-On. But they haven’t been doing that lately,” he said.

Cindy McGowan, who was shopping at Ralphs on Saturday, said she and her husband had been discussing at breakfast what to do about protecting their 9-year-old son, Brandon, whose teacher at Morris Elementary School warned his class about the would-be kidnapers Friday.

The parents decided it is no longer safe for Brandon to walk the 2 1/2 blocks to school from his home in Cypress. “It is scary,” McGowan said.

McGowan’s 14-year-old daughter, Kim, said that the family had moved from Stanton to Cypress to escape crime and feel safer outside their home.

“When we lived in Stanton we stayed in the house all day. We just left to go to school,” Kim said.

But now the McGowan family again has lost its sense of security. “You don’t know who to trust anymore,” Kim said. “You have to watch your back.”

Kim’s arms were full of snacks she and her brother planned to share Saturday night. “I’m baby-sitting my brother tonight,” she said, “and I’m not answering the door for anybody.”