An 11-year-old boy is recovering and a South Bay police department is on alert after men in a van tried to kidnap him Thursday.
The boy told police that someone tried to pull him into a van after its driver asked him for directions in Palos Verdes Estates on Thursday afternoon. The van fled after the boy broke free, and the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department has stepped up patrols in response, officers said.
The boy was feeling better Friday, said mother Elena Johson, and returned to school without missing any classes. She waited with him in the morning till the transit bus picked him up, and was there again in the afternoon when he returned.
"It's every mother's fear. We worry about somebody taking a child," Johnson said. Expressing hope additional information and attention will help in the identification of the would-be kidnappers, Mrs. Johnson permitted NBC4 to speak with her son about what happened.
He said after getting off the bus, he had walked a short distance from the stop on Via Margarita when he became aware of an older van pulling alongside. "The guy in there rolled down the right pasender window and asked for some directions to the Promenade," recalled the boy. He said he pulled up directions on his cellphone and was reading them alound when the man indicated he was not hearing it and asked the boy to step closer.
"The van door behind me slid open, and I guess somebody tried grabbing me or pulling me into the van. I just from that point on I squirmed and bolted straight to my house," said the boy, who recalled feeling a tug on his backpack. He said the van accelerated away quickly, turned right on Via Visalia and disappeared.
"We do believe this is extremely credible," said PVE Police Detective Charles Reed.
Police have issued a statewide crime bulletin as they search for a full-size Chevrolet van from the 1980s, with a chipped and faded brown paint job with light stripes on the sides. The van was being driven by a man, about 40-50 years old, police said.
Police called in extra resources, and are keeping a high profile as they stepped up patrols in five local schools and the neighborhood where the incident took place.
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"It's a very neighborly place, but the world's not that safe any more," said Det. Reed.
"You just try to be helpful and they try to kidnap you," said the boy with his mother standing alongside.
The sixth grader at a local intermediate school normally rides the Palos Verdes Peninsula Transit bus to the stop where near one of his parents meets him for the walk the rest of the way to the family's home, Mrs. Johnson said.
Thursday it was planned that he would be walking home with a friend, said Mrs. Johnson. She did not become aware the friend was not able to make it and her son was walking alone until he returned home with the frightful account of his encounter with the van, she said.
Her son was able to give a detailed description of the van because he loves cars, his mother said.
With the boy's description of the driver, police were hoping to prepare and release a composite likeness. The boy did not see whoever opened the van door and tried to pull him inside.
"I don't want to raise a fearful child but unfortunately today you kind of have your kids be looking around to see what's going on," Johnson said.
Schools in PVE reminded students of safety in numbers and how to respond if approached by a stranger, parents said. The 11-year-old said his school was helpful and supportive when he returned, but the incident proved something of a distraction to his studies because so many other students asked him about what happened. "It was kind of annoying," said the boy.
PVE Police cars remained prominent on patrol in the neighborhood Friday. Even some neighbors said they were driving around the neighborhood looking for the van.
"As a parent, I'm patrolling myself, that's what I'm doing," said Nicole Meyers, her grammar school son and high school daughter riding with her in the family SUV after school Friday afternoon. "It's just scary. Too close to home."
Meyers said she could not recall having seen the van. But others in the neighborhood did tell police they had seen a van fitting the description, Det. Reed said.
Police ask anyone with information about the incident to call 310-378-4211.
