A man tried to kidnap a girl after she got off her school bus in Woodbridge, Virginia, Wednesday, accoding to Prince William County Police.
The 13-year-old victim got off the school bus at the intersection of Elkwood Court and Bevanwood Drive, and a man in a blue pickup truck pulled up and asked her for directions to a nearby convenience store.
She told the man how to get there, and then he got physical, police said.
“He grabbed her arm first, and she ripped her arm away from him, and he went for her shirt, and she ran and that’s how it ripped," her father said. "It sort of tore down the middle. As soon as I walked in I called her name, she didn’t answer, so I got a little curious, so I ran upstairs. She was just balled up in a bed, just holding her knees to her chest and with her book bag still on.”
The young girl is safe but was terrified by the encounter.
“We still are going to take some steps to review the bus tapes, to see if that shows anything,” police Sgt. Jonathan Perok said.
They’re searching for that blue pickup truck and the man driving it.
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“He’s a white male in his early 50s with a beard, a distinctive mole on his left cheek, and so that’s who we’re looking for right now,” he said.
He's described as being 5-feet-10-inches tall and slim, about 160 pounds. He has a long white beard and shaggy hair ans was wearing a green shirt, blue pants with paint stains and tan boots.
“I’m just glad she was able to get away,” the girl’s father said.
Neighbors remain uneasy despite police stepping up patrols through their neighborhood, including while the school bus is making rounds.
“It makes my whole family nervous, and a lot of other families around here, too,” said neighbor Dana Reynolds.
Prince William County Public Schools is urging children who walk to school to do so in groups.
