Child-Accosting Couple Reported Again

Security has been increased at South Coast Plaza after a second reported incident there of a suspicious couple approaching a mother and child, the latest in a series of such reports from local shopping centers, police said Thursday.

A 30-year-old Huntington Beach woman shopping with her 1-year-old daughter called mall security at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday after she encountered a man and a woman in an elevator at the mall’s Carousel Court, said Costa Mesa Police spokesman George Wilson.

“During the ride to the second floor, the male suspect played with the infant’s arm and told the mother what a cute baby she had,” Wilson said. “The mother got suspicious of the couple and tried to elude them by entering into a female clothing shop. They followed her into the shop. She then lost sight of the couple and notified mall security.”

This is the second such incident reported at the mall within the last week.

On Monday, a 37-year-old Redlands woman told police that a man, accompanied by a woman, began tugging on her 2-year-old daughter’s arms as the two sat on a bench on the lower level of the mall Saturday.

Neither the mother nor the child was injured in either incident.

South Coast Plaza spokeswoman Jan Roberts said Thursday that security guards have increased their presence in areas of the mall such as Carousel Court, where there is a concentration of children.

“The public is concerned, so we’re concerned,” Roberts said. “I think what’s happening is that people are very nervous right now.”

Wilson said both reports “are being taken seriously” by police.

“We are recommending that if an incident like this occurs, go into the nearest shop and notify someone inside the shop of what has happened,” Wilson said.

Since Dec. 1, police have received six similar reports. Four of them reportedly took place at shopping centers in Buena Park and Cypress.

Another occurred Saturday in San Juan Capistrano. A woman told police that a man and a woman pulled in front of her house and began talking to her children. When the mother appeared, the couple drove away, she said.

Descriptions of the couple have varied in each incident.

In the latest, the man is described as in his 60s, six feet tall, 190 pounds, with white or gray hair and a mustache. The woman is described as 45 to 50 years old, 5-foot-3, 150 pounds, with orange-red dyed hair.

The mother in the other South Coast Plaza incident described both the man and the woman as 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 50 to 60 years old, with thin builds. She said the man had straight blond hair and the woman straight red hair.

The suspects in the Buena Park and Cypress incidents were described as a woman in her 40s with short, curly red hair and a portly, balding man in his mid-50s.