Girl Is Freed Unharmed After Brief Kidnaping : Crime: Seven-year-old says man released her from pickup when he saw police on routine patrol near school where abduction occurred.

A 7-year-old girl leaving a summer school class was shoved into a pickup truck Wednesday by a man who then drove off with her, police said.

But minutes later, the man saw several police vehicles in the area and told the girl to get out, she later told authorities.

The brief abduction comes a week after a man was arrested in Tustin on suspicion of kidnaping another 7-year-old girl from her bed.

The girl abducted Wednesday, who was not identified, was leaving her summer school class just before noon at Marjorie Veeh Elementary School, in the 1700 block of San Juan Street, Sgt. Mike Pettifer said.

As she walked toward her waiting mother, she passed the passenger side of a small, white pickup with a camper shell, Pettifer said.

“She felt a push and was put into the vehicle by force,” Pettifer said. The man slammed the passenger door, “ran around to his side and took off.”

The girl was among more than 350 summer school students getting out of class, according to Brad Lantz, director of student services for the Tustin Unified School District. Each day, an administrator and several teachers walk students to waiting buses and to parents, he said.

In the departing crowd, neither the teachers nor the girl’s mother saw her being forced into the pickup truck, police and school officials said.

As the truck with the frightened, weeping girl approached the intersection of San Juan and Red Hill Avenue, about 100 yards from the school, the driver spotted several Tustin police patrol cars on routine patrol, Pettifer said.

The man commented on the police cars and told the girl--in English--to get out of the truck and go back to school, she later told school officials.

“She said she didn’t respond,” Pettifer said. “She was probably very upset, and crying. Her English wasn’t very good.”

When the man repeated the instructions in Spanish, the girl got out and ran back to the school, where she contacted a custodian, who took her to the principal. Together, they located the girl’s mother, who was wandering around the school, looking for her daughter.

Police were contacted, but they didn’t find the truck.

The man was described as a Latino, about 35 years of age and wearing a ponytail.

This morning teachers in each of the kindergarten through fifth-grade classes at Veeh will discuss the abduction with students and repeat warnings about what to do if approached by a stranger.

“The normal safety instructions, are to stay away from strangers, to run and call for assistance if they are approached or grabbed,” Lantz said.

In addition, a flyer containing the same basic information will be sent home with the students, he said.

There have not been any similar incidents at Tustin schools, Lantz said.

A week ago, 7-year-old Fabiola Lopez was abducted as she slept in her bed in Tustin. However, the girl’s uncle, Hernan Salazar, heard her cries and chased the man who was carrying her off, causing him to release her.

The man, Pablo Bojorquez, a 35-year-old ice cream vendor, was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping and burglary.