Sheriff Issues New Warning After Man Asks Middle School Girl to Help Find His 'Lost Dog'
Incident occurred on the northwest side of town Wednesday.
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Just one day after Elmhurst police calmed residents' fears about an alleged attempted child abduction near York and Butterfield roads Oct. 17, the DuPage County Sheriff's Department has issued a new warning for parents.
A special bulletin was sent to parents via Elmhurst Unit District 205 at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, as soon as the Sheriff's Office shared the information with the School District. It stated that a female Churchville Middle School student was approached near her home before school hours by a suspicious person.
Following is the Sheriff's statement:
On Wednesday, Oct. 24, at approximately 6:45 a.m., a Churchville Middle School student was approached by a man driving a dark blue Pontiac. The man claimed he was looking for his lost dog and asked the girl for help in finding it. The girl’s mother saw the man talking to her daughter and came out of the house to investigate. The man then left. He is described as 30 to 40 years old, tall and clean shaven with short hair. This took place in the unincorporated area of Frontage Road and Oakdale Drive (Addison), located in the far northwest corner of District 205’s attendance area.
The release urges anyone with information related to this incident to call their local police. Elmhurst police can be reached at (630) 530-3050.
In the incident in south Elmhurst last week, Elmhurst police said the threat was "not bona fide" and did not deem it necessary for District 205 to warn parents. In this case, however, after an investigation into the validity of the report, the DuPage County Sheriff's Office asked the district to inform parents.
Additionally, the sheriff's message said children should:
• walk to and from school in groups of two or more
• never talk with strangers
• stay away from unknown vehicles
• report any suspicious incidents to the appropriate adults: police, school staff and parents
Life.Is.Good
7:39 am on Saturday, October 27, 2012
I love how the District send out their "warning" 2 days later.
Jolie
9:54 am on Saturday, October 27, 2012
At least they put a warning out. Way to go dupage! Maybe they can call elmhurst p.d.
Lived in 5 other metro areas...
11:50 am on Saturday, October 27, 2012
Really not happy with the warning being 2 days later and I never got anything from the school of which I'm involved in 3...
Karen Chadra
11:21 pm on Saturday, October 27, 2012
The DuPage Sheriff's Office investigates the validity of any report before making it public (as does the Elmhurst Police Department). The School District released the information as soon as it was notified by the DuPage Sheriff.
Matt
10:25 am on Sunday, October 28, 2012
The police are supposed to notify the day of when it involves children or an abduction attempt. Even when the details are not known. Afterwards they would issues a clarification statement. I when it involves kids you should act first ask questions later. Hence the expedited amber alert system. I have always gotten phone calls and emails of things possibly going on within the hour of the incident as a warning. A lot of the time I got another email or phone call saying what happened. Like people suspected of taking photos of kids turned out to be appraisers looking at a property. I believe there were two nationally high profile cases where warnings were issued prior to the investigation recently. Within two days of an incident that was known to be suspicious a warning should have been sent out. Parents might have been able to notice the car in those two days at another alleged fowl play incident and stopped another child from being taken. In two days a lot of damage can take place. If the police issued a statement immediately that damage could have been stopped.
Donna J. Goodwin
3:06 am on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Here in Ca. parents are walking their kids to and from school or they have grandparents, relatives, even trusted neighbors taking the kids to school. You can't let your eyes off your kids for a second! What the H... has happened to this country since My kids were in school (they graduated high school in 1987)? Lenient judges, courts, laws; time to take control back, wouldn't you say??
D. Goodwin
Temple City, Ca.