4 Kidnap Attempts Put Police on Alert

Parents and police in two beach cities were on alert Wednesday and Hermosa Beach school officials prepared to close a campus to outsiders after four schoolchildren were the targets of apparent kidnaping attempts in the last week.

The four children, in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, reported on separate occasions that a man had approached them and asked them to take a ride in his pickup truck.

Police said they are uncertain if the same man is responsible for the incidents because descriptions of the man differed slightly.

All four children, ranging in age from 7 to 14, escaped unharmed.

Hermosa Beach police released three composite drawings based on the descriptions given by each of the children approached in that city.

Police gave several explanations for the discrepancies in the sketches: Different men may have been responsible for the abduction attempts, the children’s descriptions may have been inaccurate or a single man may have altered his appearance, perhaps by wearing a wig.

All three Hermosa Beach children and an 8-year-old Manhattan Beach girl said the man who approached them was in his 20s or early 30s, about 6 feet tall and thin. His hair was variously described as red, blond and brown. Three of the children said he had a mustache, while one said he was clean-shaven. Two children said the man drove a red pickup, while two said the truck was white.

“I don’t know if we are dealing with one person or more than one,” Hermosa Beach Police Cmdr. John Mebius said.

On March 7, the 8-year-old girl was walking to Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach at about 8 a.m. when a man called to her from his white pickup truck, police said. As she walked by, the man opened his door and appeared to be masturbating inside, police Sgt. Jack Zea said.

Last Thursday, a man driving a red pickup truck pulled alongside and tried to speak to a 10-year-old boy walking home from Hermosa Valley School, said Hermosa Beach Police Sgt. Spike Kelly.

On Friday, a man walked onto the playground at the same school and told a 7-year-old girl that her mother wanted her to ride home with him.

And Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy told police that he was walking home from Mira Costa High School when a red pickup truck pulled up and the man inside told him to get in.

In all four cases, the children ran off and reported the incidents to their parents or school officials.

More parents have been escorting their children to school this week, school officials said. Police said they planned to have plainclothes officers patrolling around schools in both of the beach cities.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Hermosa Beach Mayor Roger Creighton called on citizens to be extra vigilant.

And Wednesday night the Hermosa Beach City School District board was expected to close Hermosa Valley School to everyone but students, teachers and visitors with passes. The school, with classes from kindergarten through eighth grade, has been open to the community as part of an agreement that provides local residents easy access to the beach.

“We don’t know everybody walking across campus,” said Principal Shalee Cunningham. “We feel we need to close the campus to make security 100% effective.”

The school has also sent home two notices alerting parents to the incidents.

Police said the precautions and safety training students have received in school have paid off. “These kids are great,” said Mebius. “They did exactly the right thing. When they were accosted on the street, they ran.”

A similar string of abduction attempts was reported in Hawthorne, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach last September. Over the course of two weeks, a dark-haired man driving a blue pickup truck with a camper shell approached nine schoolchildren.

The man was never captured, but police said they do not think the September incidents are related to the attempted kidnapings this month.