Harvey Workers Thwart Child Abduction Attempt
HARVEY, Ill. (CBS) -- Two city workers helped police catch a convicted sex offender who tried to abduct a boy who was walking to school Thursday morning in south suburban Harvey.
The 16-year-old was near 162nd Street and Carse Ave around 8:15 a.m., when a car pulled up alongside him.
The boy, Robert House III, said the man tried to lure him into his vehicle. When the man became more aggressive in those attempts, Robert yelled "no!" and took off running.
Two Public Works Department employees – Johnnie Morgan and DaShawn Dandridge – saw what happened, and approached the man.
"At first, I thought it was his father, until he said no and he took off running," Dandridge said.
Dandridge kept the man talking while Morgan stepped away and called police.
"He was really asking about scoring drugs, and asking about the abandoned buildings," Morgan said.
Police officers patrolling a nearby Safe Passage route arrived in two minutes, and arrested the man, identified as 43-year-old Sean Drysdale, of South Holland.
"I was very devastated about this. This could happen to any teenager," Robert said. "I'm actually glad that we caught him, or they caught him, because he could – if he was still free – he could do this again to any person in the world."
Drysdale has been charged with child abduction. He was recently released from prison, where he served 10 years for the criminal sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy from Lynwood.