Calgary, March 2026
Once upon a time, there was a dear little girl who lived in a small house at the outskirts of a village. Her name was Little Red Riding Hood. We all know that fairytale. My story also starts in a small house at the outskirts of a town, but instead of Little Red Riding Hood, an old man lived there. His name was John, and unlike Little Red Riding Hood, he wasn’t a dear old man. He was a bit grumpy, but otherwise he was OK. He, like the little girl in the fairytale, also enjoyed walking in the woods, and being retired, he had a lot of time to do that.
One day, while venturing a bit further into the forest, he saw something much worse than a big bad wolf. At the clearing close to the logging road, he saw two men attacking a young woman, beating her and dragging her to a car. She tried to defend herself, was screaming, but couldn’t do anything against them. They tied her hands with a tape, forced her into the car and left. At the last moment, John was able to read the car registration number and rushed home to call the police to report what he saw.
“There were two men kidnapping a woman, beating her and forcing her into a car. I managed to read the car registration number,” he told them.
“If we arrest the two men, would you recognize them?” asked the policemen.
“Yes, I would.”
“OK. It wouldn’t take us long to bring them to the police station. Then we will call you to do the identification. Be ready to come.”
To find the two kidnappers was easy. All the police had to do was drive to the address of the car owner. Then they banged on the door, and when a man opened, they entered with the weapons drawn, yelling: “Police. You are under arrest for kidnapping.” Another man appeared, terrified, and was also arrested. They were both handcuffed, forced into the police car and taken to the police station. Then the police called John to come and identify them.
“Are those the men?”
“Yes.”
The policeman in charge then turned to those two and asked:
“You are accused of kidnapping a woman. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
“She is at home.”
“At home?”
“Yes. We just dropped her there.”
The policeman looked at them in disbelief. “Can you explain that?”
“Yes. It is very simple,” said one of them. “We are making a film. My friend here and I are the villains of the story, and she is the victim. There is also another guy who is filming it. Do you want their names and phone numbers?”
The police called them, they came and confirmed everything that the two men said. The kidnapping was explained, and everybody was ready to leave. But the cameraman, with a camara in hand, objected: “Wait a minute,” and made a video of everybody in the room. “This will be a perfect ending of the film. The hero saved the victim and the villains were defeated,” he said. Then he turned to the police: “You will be invited to the first showing of our movie,” and this is how my variation of Little Red Riding Hood fairytale ends.