THIS SHAWN HORNBECK KIDNAPPING "Happy Ending" story creeps me out and I'll tell you why: Look at the photo of Shawn at the age of 11 when he was kidnapped four years ago. Notice anything you don't usually see on a typical Philadelphia-area suburban pre-teen boy? Notice anything you don't see on a stereotypical bad-to-the-bone 11-year-old boy from the worst gangsta GHET-TOH in North, South, West Philadelphia and Camden?

Eleven-year-old boys don't wear earrings where we come from. They don't have tattoos, either. Or pierced lips. I don't know if Shawn has a tat or two now that he's 15 and four years closer to the age when most parents would tell their sons, "No! You'll have to wait until you're 18." But I do know that since being rescued from his years of captivity, this handsome, bright-eyed boy is not only smiling easily, he's sporting at least two new body piercings on his face.

This tells me something. I'm not sure what, but it tells me that Shawn's kidnapper wasn't afraid to let Shawn do something his parents let him do, even if -- and you would imagine that in a conservative midwest community it would -- draw attention to a boy clearly not of legal age. I see a boy barely of high school age with three visible holes in his face, I think his parents are guests on the Jerry Springer Show. Or a runaway. If I'm a cop who sees this kid on the street, I crook my finger and say, "Cm'ere."

Four years this kid Shawn was stolen from his family. Four years he had opportunity, apparently, to call for help or find a cop while free to skateboard with his friends. If his captor had a young-boy piercing fetish, and forced Shawn to get his skin punctured, you'd think Shawn or his parents would have lost the lip ring before the "Shawn Found" press conference.

He didn't. They didn't. There it was.

And there it is. This story stinks. Call me old fashioned, but something's not right