Girl, 11, Escapes From Kidnaper

A kidnaped 11-year-old girl escaped from her captor early Sunday by jumping out of his truck in West Covina to end a five-hour ordeal, authorities said.

The sixth-grader had been walking with a friend Saturday evening in the 4600 block of Roxburgh Avenue in unincorporated Covina--a neighborhood of older tract homes where she has lived since birth.

The child planned to stay overnight with the classmate. About 7:40 p.m., a small black pickup truck with an orange accent stripe pulled up beside them, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

The victim’s mother said the two friends reacted as their parents had taught them: they ran from the stranger.

The driver, a heavyset man with wavy black hair, grabbed at both of them. The classmate kicked and escaped screaming, and ran to the house of a neighbor who dialed 911, Lt. Ray Grant said.

About 8 p.m., the mother said, deputies arrived to tell her that her child had been abducted.

Meanwhile, Grant said, the kidnaper forced the girl to lie face down in the cab of the truck. From that vantage point she could see a kitchen knife, though her captor never threatened her with it.

The man drove for about 30 minutes before taking the girl to a motel room. They left for a foray to a fast-food stand, where the man bought her a hamburger and soft drink, the girl told deputies.

Whenever the girl was allowed out of the truck, the man covered her face with a sweater so she could not see, Grant said.

The crime was classified as kidnaping and attempted rape, Grant said, but there was no immediate evidence of molestation.

“She said he (the kidnaper) was nice,” her mother said. “She didn’t really say if she was scared.”

Shortly after midnight, the abductor pulled his truck over near Sunset and Puente avenues in West Covina. When the truck stopped, the girl jumped out the door and ran.

Nearby, she found West Covina police officers and told them her tale.

Police could not locate the truck.

The girl was treated at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina and released.