DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daytona Beach police are searching for a man who they said tried to lure a 14-year-old girl into his car.
Police said the man approached the girl, Zaporha Steward, on Hillcrest Drive on Friday and said, “If you don’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”
Steward screamed and the man drove away, police said.
She said she froze, and questions flew through her mind.
“What is he going to do? Am I going to get kidnapped? Like, a bunch of questions and then finally I just gained sense and just was like, OK, scream,” she said. “The smart thing to do is scream and once I screamed, he got scared, I guess, and he sped off.”
Investigators said the man was driving a blue Jaguar, possibly a 2004 model.
The man was described as being between the ages of 30 to 40 years old, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds, police said.
The girl was not injured.
Police released a sketch of the man Steward described.
Steward said she was alone when the man approached her, but that her friends were down the street. The man kept asking her questions about where she was going and why she wouldn’t speak to him.
“She’s a 14-year-old girl. He’s an adult, so that’s not the way to do things,” said Jimmie Flynt of the Daytona Beach Police Department.
Anyone with information is asked to text "crimes" to (274637) or visit the Daytona Beach Police Department's website and click on anonymous web tips. When using a cellphone, all messages should begin with "dbtips."
Tipsters may remain anonymous.