Michigan Boy Who Used Slingshot to Save Sister Says He ‘Was Just Lucky’

Andrew Burns (L), Owen Burns (C), and Margaret Burns pose with a slingshot Owen used to thwart an alleged May 10 kidnapping attempt of his sister in Alpena Township, Mich., on May 17, 2023. Steve Schulwitz/The Alpena News via AP

ALPENA TOWNSHIP, Mich.—A 13-year-old Michigan boy who used a slingshot to save his 8-year-old sister from an attempted kidnapping said he was “freaking out” and simply reached for something that could stop the attack.

“So I grab my slingshot and open the window and I grab two things—a marble and a gravel rock or something,” Owen Burns told WWTV/WWUP-TV in Cadillac in northern Michigan.