Thursday, September 3, 2015

Police warn parents to be on alert after several attempted child abductions


Police are warning parents to be on alert after several attempted child abductions in northwest metro Atlanta.  The latest happened Tuesday morning in Woodstock.

Police have received several reports in the Legacy Park area of Kennesaw following recent warnings of attempted abductions in Marietta, Smyrna, and at least one other Cobb County neighborhood.

Channel 2's Ross Cavitt spoke to the mother of one of the children who had a close encounter.

"I could hear him yelling at the front door, 'Mom, Mom, come here. I need you, Mom. Hurry.'  I knew something wasn't right,” mother Casey Wilson said.

Wilson had that sinking feeling when her 12-year-old son ran home instead of being at the bus stop Tuesday morning.

Hours later after talking with her son, Cherokee deputies put out a lookout for a man in a white SUV who had offered to help the boy untangled his earphones.

"The man asked him if he needed help with that, and my son said no, then he said get on in, and I'll help you with that, and he said no, thank you, and the guy said, 'Just get in the car,'" Wilson said.

Wilson's son ran toward a neighbor and the man in the white SUV drove off.  Unlike other recent abduction attempts, Cherokee deputies have a good description of the suspect, a man with short gray hair, round sunglasses, wearing a greyish brown shirt and a tattoo on his left bicep.

His white SUV, possibly an older Mercury Mountaineer, had black rims and a streak of red paint or rust on the bottom of the driver's side door.

Police and deputies in the northwest suburbs are dealing with a series of such encounters, all with seemingly different descriptions and various scenarios.

Wilson only knows her son was clearly frightened and disturbed with what happened on Deer Hollow Drive, which hit her once the deputies left.

"I definitely want to hold both my kids a little tighter every night, and I'm sad, It is sad there are no places where you feel safe," Wilson said.