WHAT'S YOUR DISTRESS CODE?

It is funny how we always seem prepared for what never happens but never prepared for what eventually does happen.  I have always thought it a great idea to have this secret code between my husband and I that would send a signal to me that he has a thief(holding a gun to his head)  with him at the door when he knocks. I never thought I needed to have a code for ‘hey aunt, I have been kidnapped!’

Yes I give all thanks to God today.  My niece-cousin-niece-cousin..Whatever, well, my cousin’s daughter was kidnapped.  She lives with me. We spoke more than four times on the phone while she was with the kidnappers yet I suspected nothing.  As far as I was concerned, she went for her computer classes and is staying longer than necessary, disobeying my orders to leave there and head back home. So, I decided to stop calling and see the time she would come home and I would tongue lash her.  My mom called to tell me that my niece called her to tell her she was lost and did not have a clue how to get back home to me. Of course I panicked in confusion. I called and gave her instructions on how to get to a spot where my hubby would go pick her up.

She is back home safe and sound now. Here is her story….

On her way to her computer class which is just on the next street, she was accosted by a guy with a gun to go into a jeep. She was then driven from my very far location of agege to some place (we got to know, a village after Ikorodu). They took her into an uncompleted building where she was asked to sit and that was when she made the second call to me asking if I was home yet. Apparently, they were given a photograph of a girl to kidnap and she was just a case of mistaken identity. The main man ordered them to take her back and left. They told her they had no time to take her back and she should be prepared to stay there for another three days since she said she knew nowhere. There was however a younger guy who was asked to stay with her. He told her he would take her to where she would get a bus and she should ask around from there. So he took her to where she boarded bus to Ikorodu and she was able to contact us properly. Of course the story is longer than all of this but my simple question is, do we now make it a duty to give code words within the family that will signify that we are in a compromised or bad situation?