Man's alleged ploy to lure kids in Spring Hill stirs fears
By Harriet Vaughan • THE TENNESSEAN • March 8, 2010
SPRING HILL - Parents and police are on guard after reports of a man trying to lure children into his van in Spring Hill.
Spring Hill police say that a man in a van has approached two kids with different ploys to try to get them into his vehicle.
The first reported incident was at Longview Recreation Center on Feb. 13, according to Lt. Jason Fogle. That's when the driver of a white van reportedly approached a 13-year-old girl after her tennis lessons. The girl said the man invited her to sit in his van until her parents came to get her. The girl refused, Fogle said.
The second incident reportedly happened two weeks later in the Auto Zone parking lot, behind the Tanyard Springs subdivision, where a group of young boys were playing. A 10-year-old boy said a man driving a van offered him candy to come to the van.
Both incidents happened in the early afternoon hours, Fogle said. Spring Hill police have beefed up patrols around school bus stops and at the rec center as well as other areas where kids are known to frequently hang out and play.
The descriptions of the driver and van vary. Fogle said kids have reported a white van and a sage green van. The driver has been described as an old, short, bald and heavy-set man. A second description is of a white man wearing a hood.
Though no arrest has been made, Fogle said parents should not panic.
"I don't think they should be on any higher alert than they already should be," he said. "They should know where their kids are, check in on them, go over with them stranger danger and what to do and how to respond.
"They need to go over with them and do it always and not just because of a few reported incidents."
Regardless, parents are in panic mode.
Jaye Kloss, communities manager for property management firm Ghertner & Co., said the e-mails are flooding in about the man in the van. She said she's received e-mails about the van from multiple neighborhoods in Spring Hill including Pickett Ridge, Meadowbrook, Deerfield and Chapmans Crossing.
This isn't the first time parents have complained about the suspicious van.
Fogle said that similar reports of a man trying to lure kids into a van go back almost two years.
"Now it's coming back around, and it seems to have more people seeing it, and it's concerning," Kloss said.
Anyone who has any information, should call the police at 931-486-2252.
Contact Harriet Vaughan at 615-771-5415 or hvaughan@tennessean.com.
Comments(2)