My girlfriend and her best friend both wanted to take their daughters to the neighborhood park yesterday. My step-daughter is 11 and the other girl was 9 or 10.

As they were walking home, the 2 girls were in front of the parent(s), probably by 30 to 50 feet from what I can guess.

As the girls cross the crosswalk by the park, and car stops directly across from them, and a man asks something about a park, directions to a park.

BOTH girls get a spooky feeling and start backing up away from the guy.

He then starts getting out of his car.... then my girlfriend walks up and asks what does he wants. He is startled, asks something about Willow Creek Park (a large park no-to-far from where we live, BUT noticeably different from the small neighborhood park in our subdivision).

She says "over that way" and points west, but he quickly gets back into his car and drives away.

The girls and moms told me when they arrived home and I called Arapahoe County 911 to report this.

An AWESOME sheriff came by, talked to them, got statements and descriptions, and was wonderful talking to my normally shy step-daughter.

Now, I admit I wasn't there, but BOTH girls got the "heeby jeebies" from this guy and both indicated he was creepy.

I haven't checked CO's "Online Sexual Offender Database" to see if they recognized him, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Yes, of course, this could have been innocent, he could have actually been lost, but FIRST, who asks little girls for directions (?) and SECOND, if you know the park he was asking about, it's NOT AT ALL like our little neighborhood park and LASTLY, he was getting out of the car, but suddenly ducked back in when the parent(s) arrived...

CREEPY!!!

I'm very proud of my step-daughter, she backed up and did NOT engage with the man, as did the other girl.

BOLO info if you're in Denver
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Description: Older white man, overweight, wearing dark clothes, sunglasses and a dark hat, with white hair.

Description of the car: Older "ratty" Lexus sedan with body damage (they all were too freaked out to even look at the license plate, so not sure if it was in-state or not).

Hug your kids if you have them!!!!

Teach them about stranger danger!!!

James

It NEVER hurts to file a report and be safe. I am glad everyone is okay. At least a report is on file with description, vehicle, etc. In my opinion, there was no reason to get out of his car since he obviously saw the girls were apprehensive about him.

Good job by all. Especially filing the police report. Might save another young girl from this creep.
And yes it all sounded like a very serious situation. Glad the girls are ok.
Nothing more instinctive than a mother protecting her young. That creep is lucky those mothers did not unleash hell on him early.

Now that many kids have cell phones, best to train them to take a quick photo of the guy, the car, and the plates if possible.

Glad both girls are Ok. Sounds like both have been brought up well about dealing with strangers.

quote:

Originally posted by James in Denver:
... and LASTLY, he was getting out of the car, but suddenly ducked back in when the parent(s) arrived...

Hmmm... That, if her description of the event was accurate, seems damn suspicious to me.

Glad they are safe and ok. And tell them they did good with instinct. We preach this to our kids all the time. If it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. I know first hand how this can happen in a blink of eye. A very similar incident happened to my daughter a few years ago while I was with her and her friends at a local park. This guy reaches out to grab her as they all passed by riding on push scooters. I didn’t see it they were on the other side of some play equipment. The girls avoided him and returned to us telling of incident. I got a description and set off in direction they claimed. I ran into an officer as soon as I was in area. There actually was a presents of local LEO in park that day also for some community policing goodwill thing. I had 3 detectives and 4 uniforms in front of me within a minute getting descriptions from girls. Other patrol units arrived. Park was searched. It was a busy day lots of folks in park. They actually found a guy similar and detained but all 4 girls all separately said it wasn’t him. Man I was not a happy camper that day. The girls said he also mumbled something as he reached for her and then ran off to a vehicle which they described also. Several possibles later of man and car but nothing positive. It was definitely a waking moment for all parents and kids. Those girls still discuss that day at times and wonder “what if”.

I have a really (!) bad attitude toward child kidnapping and abuse. There is no punishment strong enough to be administered for that crime.

Death or neutering seems appropriate.

Good job on parenting!!!

quote:

Originally posted by molachi:
Glad both girls are Ok. Sounds like both have been brought up well about dealing with strangers.

I have to disagree.

Being distracted and holding still is (dinner) prey instinct/behavior.

Better to move away and cause a ruckus and attention to the situation.