Parents Put on Alert Over Stalker : Crime: Authorities express frustration over their failure to catch the man who boldly approaches children in the Dana Point area.

Nearly 75 anxious parents who gathered at a school meeting here Wednesday night were told to be on constant watch after at least seven incidents involving a man who appears to be stalking children.

“He’s very brazen,” said Cherie Kocaka, whose daughter was approached by the man at the foot of the stairs to their home. “He’ll approach kids even when their parents are close by.”

Sheriff’s Department officials said they are frustrated, especially by the latest incident on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a good description of him that has been broadcast by the media, yet he’s bold enough to make another attempt,” said Lt. Dan Martini. “He’s on the edge, and we are treating this situation very seriously.”

The man, described as white, with long, curly brown hair, severe acne and a boil on his upper cheek, used the same ruse Tuesday that he has used in several incidents, authorities said. He approached two children on their front lawn in the 34000 block of Via San Juan at 6 p.m. and asked them to help him find a lost cat.

One of the children had been warned about the man and ran into the house, screaming for help.

A sheriff’s deputy was only a block away at the time. But the suspect had disappeared into one of the bush-filled ravines lacing the area by the time police arrived.

“It’s been real frustrating for us not to get this guy,” said Sgt. Al Coutts, who heads the sheriff’s South County investigative team. “Most of us have small children, so we take this kind of thing very personally.”

In the Capistrano Beach neighborhood where four of the incidents have taken place, the atmosphere of fright “has escalated enormously,” said Jayne Canfield, principal of Palisades Elementary School, where the parents met Wednesday night.

“Many, many more parents walk their kids to school,” she said. “You don’t see kids walking alone to school any more.”

Kristin Nelson, a speaker from the Adam Walsh Center for Missing and Exploited Children, gave parents tips on child safety and told the parents at the meeting that the man “could live here. Any perpetrator can be your neighbor.”

Some parents handed out flyers with a drawing of the suspect; others gave out leaflets about neighborhood “safe houses,” homes marked with bright red signs where children can run when they are in danger.

One woman demonstrated an alarm children can wear on their belts that emits a piercing screech when they tug on it.

Martini said the suspect is obviously familiar with the Capistrano Beach area, which is on a broad shelf of cliffs, pockmarked with narrow, wooded ravines.

“It’s a pretty neighborhood, but it’s an easy place to get lost in,” Martini said. “That’s probably helped this guy.”

The same man is suspected of three other incidents of child harassment in March at Del Obispo Park, near Del Obispo Street and Pacific Coast Highway, Martini said.

The park is about two miles from Palisades Elementary School.

Canfield said that on May 27 a man exposed himself to a female student on an outdoor basketball court after school.

“The report given by the girl didn’t match details the sheriffs previously had gotten,” Canfield said.