A 12-year-old walking home from Brownell Middle School was
followed and offered a ride by an unknown man in a beige van Monday
afternoon, police said. The incident is the first since a rash of
men following children late last year.
A 12-year-old walking home from Brownell Middle School was followed and offered a ride by an unknown man in a beige van Monday afternoon, police said.
About 5 p.m., the girl was walking along Third Street when she was passed twice by the van, police said. The van then came by a third time and a man – who the girl described as Hispanic, about 30 years old, clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt – pulled the vehicle in front of her as she neared Rea Street.
The man asked her if she spoke Spanish, which she said she did not, police said. He then asked her repeatedly if she needed a ride, to which she said no repeatedly. The girl said that her mother was coming and the man fled in the van, which the girl described as small and without a sliding door.
“Fortunately, we’ve got a good communication system between district officials, the school and the community to alert and remind each other of safety protocol,” Brownell Principal Francisco Fuentes said.
In November police arrested a man on suspicion of trying to kidnap a teen girl, and days later another man tried to lure an 11-year-old girl into his van.
The 11-year-old was walking on a Church Street sidewalk between Fourth and Fifth streets on a Monday afternoon in November, when a man drove up to her in his white van and asked her if she needed a ride. The girl ran to her nearby house and peeked out the window. The van continued driving, past the girl’s house and out of her sight. She then ran to her mother’s workplace and her mother called the police.
The victim said the suspect was 40 to 50 years old and wearing a straw hat. The van had chipped paint, damage to the front fender and an orange ladder on the roof.
Witnesses in three earlier possible attempted kidnappings also identified white vans.
The incidents involving vans were part of a rash of suspicious incidents since August of drivers in white vehicles pursuing youth that include the mid-October stalking and attempted kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl on Adler Court in southwest Gilroy.
Past Incidents
Early August: a man followed a female out of a convenience store and pursued her in his white van.
Aug. 30: Older Hispanic man driving a marred white van approaches 17-year-old female outside her house
Sept. 14: Younger Hispanic man approaches 17-year-old male near Gilroy High School and offers him a ride in a marked white van
Oct. 7: Man in white pickup follows 10-year-old girl outside residence near Glen View school
Oct. 15: Man in white sedan watches two young girls outside Alder Street residence
Oct. 17: Same man in white sedan approaches one of the two girls
Nov. 9: Man arrested after trying to kidnap 16-year-old girl walking home from GHS
Nov. 12: Older man in white van asks 11-year-old on Church Street if she wants a ride
Reporters Chris Bone and Sara Suddes contributed to this article.
