An 8-year-old Howard County boy told police a strange woman tried to pull him inside her car as he was walking home from an Ellicott City school Tuesday afternoon.
“This sort of thing where a person gets out [of] the vehicle ? particularly a woman ? and [tries to take a child] is very unusual,” said Police Spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn, who added the department doesn?t keep statistics on abduction reports because they are so rare.
“It is very concerning to us,” said Jackie Klamerus, principal of Bellows Spring Elementary School, where the boy attends school.
At about 4 p.m., the boy was walking on Old Stockbridge Road near Old Field Road when a burgundy Toyota sport utility vehicle stopped near him, police said.
A woman approached the boy, offering him a ride; when the boy refused, the woman tried to pull him into the car, police said. After a brief struggle, the child pulled away and ran home. The boy was unharmed.
Abduction attempts by strangers are rare, but children should know how to react, said Carla Proudfoot, director of the Maryland State Police?s Center for Missing Children,
“We have always advocated that a child not go within 3 feet of a vehicle. Once they get in close proximity, it?s easier for [perpetrators] to get their hands on them,” she said.
Children also should yell if they feel they are being threatened or make their body limp so it is difficult for an abductor to carry them, Proudfoot said.
Police have increased patrols around Bellows Spring Elementary in the last few days.
The school also issued an e-mail newsletter Wednesday to parents about the abduction attempt, Klamerus said. Teachers also are urging students to walk in pairs, avoid strangers and stay on the sidewalks if someone in a vehicle beckons them over.
Police are searching for the suspect, described as a white female with brown hair and glasses, wearing a skirt or dress and heels. Anyone with information should call 410-313-3200.
Men are most likely first suspects
Howard County?s recent report of an unknown woman attempting to abduct an 8-year-old boy is one of the least-common kidnapping scenarios, experts say.
“With men abducting, it?s usually for some sexual purpose, and women abductors most often are abducting an infant or small child, because they want to love and care for the child,” said Carla Proudfoot, director of Maryland State Police-Maryland Center for Missing Children.
Almost 75 percent of perpetrators in kidnappings are men, according to 2002 statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, the latest data available.
Females between the ages 11 and 17 are the most-targeted victims, Proudfoot said.
Family members are about 3.5 times more likely than a stranger to try to abduct a child, according to the justice department.
“Most often [family abductors] are not taking the child out of love ? it?s because they are trying to hurt the other parent or hurt the child,” Proudfoot said.
Each year, about 58,200 children are the victims of nonfamily abductions, while about 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions, according to the justice department.
In the rare case when a stranger does approach a child, the child should be on the lookout for common ploys, Proudfoot said, such as someone asking for directions or saying they have lost an animal and need help finding it. A stranger may even try to trick a child by saying his or her mother is in the hospital and she sent them to get the child.
“They are very convincing,” Proudfoot said. “They will come up with a million things.” ? Megan McIlroy
