The Karen Who Cried Kidnapping

How one unsuspecting craft-loving mom got tangled in an influencer’s viral yarn.

- By Rose Minutaglio

Sadie Vega-Martinez needed to find baby Jesus. On December 7, 2020, the mother of five threw her hair up in a messy bun, pulled on sweats, and dragged her husband Eddie to the Michaels craft store five minutes from their home in Petaluma, California. She was on a mission to complete a nativity scene for her Christmas table. As they wove through aisles of Puffy paints, jars of glitter, and rainbow-colored yarn, Sadie didn't notice the blonde-haired, blue-eyed mom pushing a double stroller and eyeing her and Eddie suspiciously. “We never would have even known she existed,” Sadie tells me. “No encounter, nothing.” If there had been, what happened next might have made a lot more sense.