Police: Man Tried To Kidnap 11-Year-Old Girl From Brooklyn Bus Stop
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police in Brooklyn are trying to find a man who they said attempted to kidnap an 11-year-old girl at a bus stop.
It happened around 5:40 p.m. Thursday at the corner of Rogers Avenue and Albermarle Road.
Police said the girl was standing at the B49 bus stop when a van pulled up and a man offered to give her a ride home. When the girl declined, the man got out of the van with a wooden stick in his hand and tried to grab her, police said.
The girl was able to run back to school where she alerted school safety agents, who then called 911. The girl said the man got back in the van and drove off, heading north on Rogers Avenue, police said.
News of what happened has left many parents on edge, especially with a police precinct headquarters right around the corner from where the incident took place.
"It's funny how this incident happened right in front of the school and the police station is right behind us and it shows the kind of security we have in this neighborhood," parent Rebecca Hanson told CBS2's Steve Langford.
"It's very scary to know that my daughter goes across the street and the corner and you still have stuff like that going on," said parent Paul Campbell.
"It's kind of scary," another dad told 1010 WINS' Al Jones. "That's why we pick up our kids, make sure we grab them and walk with them."
"I always speak to my kids about stuff like that," another mom said. "So I tell them to stay inside and wait for me to come out because you never know."
The suspect is described as a 40-year-old black man between 5'3" and 5'4" tall and 140 pounds, police said. He was wearing a gray baseball cap, a gray sweater and gray pants and was driving a very old, rusty gray van.
The investigation is ongoing.