GLENDALE : Police Seek Help Finding Stalker Suspect

Glendale police asked for the public’s help Friday in finding a man who stalked an 8-year-old girl for 30 minutes at the Glendale Galleria last weekend, then tried unsuccessfully to kidnap her.

The suspect, described as a Latino or Asian man in his late 20s to early 30s, is wanted on attempted kidnaping and attempted molestation charges.

He probably failed to lure the girl out of the mall only because the child knew to tell him “that her mother warned her not to go with strangers,” police Sgt. Jon Perkins said at a news conference.

“With every convincing statement that he made, she responded in the same way,” Perkins said. “She was very adamant about that.”

According to police reports, the girl and her mother, who live in Los Angeles, were on a shopping trip to the mall last Saturday. The man first approached the girl while she was walking through the mall, brushing his hand against her face.

At about 11:45 a.m., the girl left her mother’s side in the Nordstrom department store’s cosmetics section to go get a lid for a drink her mother had just bought her at a nearby espresso counter, authorities said. The man allegedly approached her again and asked her, “Do you want to take a walk with me?” and asked the girl where her mother was. He grabbed the girl’s hand and tried to take her with him, but she broke away, according to the report.

Police released a composite sketch of the man that was based on the recollections of the girl’s mother, who said she remembered the man walking past her and smiling at her earlier that day, and a Nordstrom employee who witnessed the incident.

The suspect is considered dangerous, police said, especially because he tried to kidnap the girl in front of passing shoppers in the midst of a busy shopping day.

“That shows you the boldness of this individual,” Perkins said.

Perkins said police are appealing to the community to help find the man because they have not been able to come up with any leads and they believe he may try kidnaping another child. The incident was not witnessed by the mall’s security staff, and so far, the man has not shown up on videotape taken by security cameras throughout the mall that day, he said.

Police said they are also checking their files on registered sex offenders but have not drawn any connection between the suspect and previous similar crimes in the area.

All 280 stores in the mall have been alerted to look out for the suspect, as have officials at nearby malls such as the Media City Center in Burbank and the Plaza Pasadena.

However, Police Sgt. Rod Brooks said the incident is an aberration and parents should not consider the Galleria unsafe for children.

“The police department operates a substation at the mall, but really never deal with any actual kidnapings, no problems with child bothering,” Brooks said.

Crimes that are common at the mall are auto burglary, petty theft and disturbing the peace, he said.