South Bay Child Kidnap Attempts Increasing, Police Say

Police believe that a man who has been trying for more than two weeks to lure South Bay schoolchildren into a blue vehicle may be striking with increasing frequency over a wider area, raising fears among school officials and parents.

As of Thursday afternoon, police in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hawthorne reported seven separate attempts--all of them unsuccessful--to abduct a total of nine children, ages 7 to 12.

“Now they’re coming more rapidly, and he’s moving into other cities,” said Sgt. Jack Zea of Manhattan Beach, where the first incident took place Sept. 13. “It’s almost like this guy just came out of nowhere.”

Reached Out

The most recent incident occurred Wednesday evening in Redondo Beach, where for the first time, the man was reported trying to use force. Police said he reached out to grab a 7-year-old girl after she refused to get in his blue pickup truck, but the girl got away.

Police say the man used the same approach each time: He told children that their parents have been injured and he would take them home or to school. In each case, the children did as they had been taught: They ran away.

The latest attempt caused some police officers to worry that the suspect is becoming more aggressive.

“That’s a very big concern,” Hawthorne Detective Richard McCarroll said. “We don’t care (which police department) gets him, as long as somebody gets him before it gets to that point.”

In one typical attempt, the man pulled alongside a pair of Hawthorne children and, according to McCarroll, said, “Your parents were in an auto accident, and you are to go with me to the counselor’s office.”

Patrols Increased

In the wake of the attempted abductions, police in Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Torrance--where a similar but unrelated incident took place Monday--have increased their patrols around schools.

Parents say they are now driving their youngsters to school or walking with them, rather than letting them go alone or with other youngsters.

“Whenever parents are gathered, the subject does come up,” said Linda Mack, president of the Parent Teachers Assn. at Manhattan Beach Intermediate School.

Officials in several South Bay school districts reported that they have sent flyers home to parents or have circulated information about the suspect to teachers, who have been asked to reinforce the safety lessons their pupils have already been taught.

“We’ve put every teacher on notice,” Sharon Andrade, assistant principal of Hawthorne’s York Elementary School, said Thursday.

According to police, children involved in five of the seven incidents reported that the man who approached them drove a blue pickup truck with a white camper shell. In the other two incidents, the children reported that the man drove a blue vehicle--in one case a Pontiac, in the other case a station wagon.

Police said these discrepancies do not change their theory that the incidents are related. In each case, the description of the suspect was the same: a man in his 30s, white or Latino, with a dark complexion, dark hair and a dark mustache, sometimes wearing sunglasses.

Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story.