GREENFIELD — A local girl told her parents a stranger asked her to climb into his car as she waited alone for the bus early Tuesday morning.
Now, the Greenfield Police Department is searching for the man the girl described, citing the incident as a possible child abduction attempt. They’re warning residents to be on the lookout for the man and report anything suspicious to police.
Investigators were called to the Greenfield Village Apartment complex around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday after a young girl told her mother she was approached by a strange man while she was waiting for the school bus.
The child was alone when the man approached her, though other children and parents were in the area. She called her mother from the school bus to tell her what happened, and her mother immediately contacted police, Greenfield Lt. Randy Ratliff said.
The girl said she saw the man drive several laps around the apartment complex, located near the intersection of Broadway Street and West McClarnon Drive in Greenfield, before he stopped to talk to her, according to police.
The man – whom the girl did not know — asked her to get into his vehicle.
The girl refused, and moments later the school bus arrived and she climbed aboard the bus instead, police said.
The girl said the subject who approached her as a white male with a buzz haircut. He was wearing a black shirt at the time of the incident.
The man was driving a burnt orange four-door midsized passenger car.
At press time, the police department had not received any additional reports of the same suspect approaching other children locally, Ratliff said.
Detectives are now asking anyone who was near Greenfield Village Apartments Tuesday morning and might have seen the man to call and with any information.
Officers are also warning parents and children to vigilant and call 911 if they see anything suspicious.