Man Who Tried To Kidnap Amish Boy From Farm Stand Gets 4 to 7 Years In Prison
After a recent spate of kidnapping attempts of Amish adults and children, one of the perpetrators has now received his punishment.
The man who tried to kidnap a 9-year-old Amish boy from a farm stand in Juniata County, Pennsylvania last year is headed to prison.
Back in September 2025, a man grabbed the boy while his back was turned, forced him into an SUV, and drove off. Thankfully, the boy got away when the driver slowed to make a U-turn; he ran off into a cornfield.
Two months later, DNA on a $20 bill the man had dropped into the boy’s money container led police to a man named Tanner Nipple, of Mifflintown, PA.
Nipple has since pleaded guilty, and he was sentenced on Monday. From abc27:
Online court records show 26-year-old Tanner Nipple, of Mifflintown, will spend between four and seven years in prison, followed by three years on probation.
He previously pled guilty to kidnapping of a minor and interference with custody of children, while another kidnapping charge and a false imprisonment charge were “nolle prossed,” meaning prosecutors decided to withdraw them.
CBS 21 reports the minimum as three years rather than four, so one of the two has it wrong (abc27 is going off the court docket).
This is one of those chilling stories where you fear what would have happened had this sick guy gotten away with his attempted abduction.
This case was just one of several attempted kidnappings of Amish children in 2025. Others were the Geauga County, Ohio home invasion case, and a reported kidnapping attempt of an Amish boy by a man and woman in Gallia County, Ohio.
The Juniata County Amish community dates to 1950, when Amish from neighboring Mifflin County and elsewhere began settling the area. Among Pennsylvania’s many Amish settlements, it’s a sizeable one, at over 1,300 Amish residents.
There have been a further two attempted abductions in just the past month – one of an Amish woman in Pennsylvania, and another of an Amish girl in Indiana. Thankfully both of those failed as well. I’m not sure what’s going on out there. I’m not going to go down any psychology rabbit holes here, but I am guessing there may be a sick attraction to the Amish for some people, seeing them as a more innocent culture.
Additionally, there is the perception that the Amish are easier victims in part due to the misguided notion that they don’t involve police (they do).
Stopping and punishing these people you would hope would send a message, but I’m not so sure it deters someone with bad ideas in their head. Nipple will be imprisoned for several years. But to me, 4 to 7 years seems a short sentence for what he tried to do.
What will be done to deter him from trying something like this again once he’s out, so that other children in the community are protected? Will he get treatment if there are issues making that appropriate?
