PHILMONT—Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a possible attempted child abduction on Eagle Street in the Village Wednesday at 7:13 a.m.
The father of an 11-year-old girl reported that while his daughter walked along the street, a white pickup truck slowly followed her and at one point the driver asked the child if she missed the school bus and offered to give her a ride to school. The girl ran from the man to her home and immediately told her father what happened, according to a press release from Columbia County Sheriff David Harrison Jr.
The driver of the pickup was a thin white man, about 30 years of age, with a tan complexion, short brown hair in a crew cut and a full brownish beard trimmed short. The man was wearing a silver loop in his left ear.
The pickup was last seen traveling away from the area headed toward County Route 11 at a high rate of speed.
Deputies and investigators are looking into a similar event involving another young girl the same morning on a different street in the village.
The sheriff said that the girls did the right thing by running to a safe area and reporting the incident right away.
Anyone who has any information about the incidents is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (518) 828-3344.
State Police are looking into the attempted abduction of a 14-year-old boy on West Ghent Road in Stockport, September 30 at 4:30 p.m.
The suspect in the Stockport incident was an older white man with white hair, who was driving a shortbed model, two-door, dark green pickup with black fenders. Anyone with information regarding that incident is asked to call State Police at (518) 851-2001.