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Leesburg parents, police on high alert after girl says man tried to lure her into truck

By Myrt Price, WFTV.com
By Myrt Price, WFTV.com
Police in Leesburg have increased patrols and parents and officials at Carver Middle School were on high alert Wednesday after a girl said a strange man tried to lure her into his truck while waiting to be picked up.
The school sent an alert to parents Tuesday warning them to be vigilant.
“A Carver Middle School student says she was approached inappropriately by a stranger, who made her feel unsafe as she walked home from school,” the alert said.
Police said the girl was waiting to be picked up by her parents across the street from the school entrance on Beecher Street when the man pulled up, opened the door of his truck and tried to convince her to get in.
When she backed away and pulled out a phone to call her parents, the man drove away, police said.
Parent Kimberly Jones was glad the school alerted the community about the incident.
“It raised concerns with me because my daughter attends Carver Middle School and sometimes she does walk to my mother’s house,” she said. “I think (people like the suspicious man) are crazy, and I think the judicial system needs to do a better job when they capture these people. Put them away.”
Jones said she was also thankful for the Leesburg Police Department increasing officers’ presence around the school.
“To make the parents feel safe,” she said. “If their child is walking home, blocks from here, that they are going to make it home and not end up in some crazy man’s car.”
The girl told investigators the suspicious person was a white male with short hair and a goatee and was wearing a sleeveless black shirt and black pants.
He was in a black, two-door pickup truck with a silver toolbox in the back and a license plate that looked similar to an American flag, police said.

Cox Media Group

Myrt Price

Myrt Price, WFTV.com

Myrt Price joined the eyewitness news team as a general assignment reporter in October of 2012.

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