MH police working with Gilroy police on stalking cases
MORGAN HILL
An 8-year-old Morgan Hill boy is the latest child approached by an unknown male in a series of incidents that could be related, police said.
The boy was approached Friday afternoon, just after 1 p.m., according to Morgan Hill police Sgt. Jerry Neumayer. He was on Monterey Road near the Maple Leaf RV Park when a man in a white van with pictures of animals on the rear quarter-panels stopped and asked the boy if he wanted to see the animals inside the van.
When the boy asked him to take the animals out of the van, Neumayer said, the man drove off.
The man is described as a white male in his mid-30s with long hair.
“We’ll be working with Gilroy police on this,” Neumayer said. “It could be connected to other incidents, but we don’t know all the details at this point. We’re certainly not ruling out that it may be connected.”
Gilroy has experienced a spate of child-stalking incidents in the last three months.
Last Monday, two young girls were chased by a male as they went outside to pick up their newspaper, and one of the same girls was yelled at by the same man outside her home the week before.
On Oct. 7, an older Hispanic man followed a 10-year-old girl in a white truck. On Sept. 14, a younger Hispanic man approached a 17-year-old male near Gilroy High School and offered him a ride in a marked white van. On Aug. 30, an older Hispanic man driving a white van followed and then approached a 17-year-old female outside her house. And in early August, a man followed a female out of a convenience store and pursued her in his white van.
None of the stalking victims were physically harmed.
Neumayer said if anyone has information about the van involved in Friday afternoon’s incident, or about the man believed to be driving, they may contact the Morgan Hill Police Department at 779-2101. Anyone with information about the other incidents is asked to contact the Gilroy Police Department at 846-0310.
