By Anthony Rifilato
According to police, a 12-year-old Baldwin Middle School student walking home after football practice on Oct. 23 was approached by a man driving a red Ford minivan. As the boy walked along Stanton and Westervelt avenues and Russell Street, the man asked him several times if he wanted to get into the van. The boy refused, and finally ran to a friend's house, police said.
"After the guy made a turn onto another street, [the boy] realized he was being followed," said Nassau County police spokesman Officer Vincent Garcia. "He started to run to a friend's house, and when he turned around, the driver was gone."
The boy called police, Garcia said, and described the suspect as about 30 years old, thin and clean-shaven, with short hair. He also told police that the man had a female passenger in the car.
"We alert the kids, we go class to class, we let the teachers know," said school Superintendent Dr. William Johnson. "We don't want kids walking home alone - they should walk with a buddy or they should get a ride from a parent. We write home to parents of all elementary schools. The middle school and high school students are alerted to it, but they're older and more likely to know what to do. We want kids to use these safety precautions all the time, so when something like this happens, it's a reminder to use the good safety measures they're always using. Even though these incidents happened in neighboring school districts, they're close enough for us to treat them as though they happened in Rockville Centre. We just put everyone on notice."
The incident in Baldwin came after a 9-year-old girl in Rockville Centre was followed by a man driving a white van. On Oct. 19, as the girl was walking to School No. 5 in Oceanside on Long Beach Road, she was approached by the van at Long Beach and Merrick Roads.
"The girl ran into a local store and called police," Garcia said. According to police, the girl said the man told her, "Yes, I'm looking at you. I want to take you to school in my van."
She ran into the store, and when she came out the van was gone. She let a crossing guard know what had happened, and she notified School No. 5's principal, Stephen Kriss.
Police said that the incidents are being treated separately as the investigation continues. "It's being treated as two unrelated incidents at this time," Garcia said.
He added that the suspect has a mustache, and the license plate on his van included the letters DVB.
Nassau County Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin), who lives near Plaza School - not far from where the Baldwin student was followed - said he immediately contacted officials at the 1st Police Precinct. Scannell added that police have stepped up patrols of the area.
"I pick up my kids from school every day, and it's a parent's worst nightmare," Scannell said. "Police canvassed the area and spoke to people on the block. They're putting extra patrols out there - two extra unmarked cars in the area. I spoke to numerous parents at Plaza and they're hoping to get extra police coverage. And we're going to get it."
The superintendents of the Rockville Centre, Oceanside and Baldwin schools each said their districts sent letters to parents, alerting them about the attempted abductions. Johnson said the information was first disseminated to district residents who subscribe to Listserv online, and that message was the body of a letter signed by each of the five elementary school principals and sent home to parents.
Earlier this year, Oceanside school superintendent Dr. Herb Brown mailed out 4,000 similar letters after an incident on Jan. 25, when, according to police, a man driving a small tan car asked a seventh-grade girl to get into his car as she was waiting for a school bus at Coolidge Place and Harding Street.
Only days earlier, on Jan. 17, a 17-year-old girl was walking home on Oceanside Road when she was approached by a man in a blue van who asked her if she wanted to hitch a ride with him, police said. She said no and went inside her home. Later that day, at Nassau Road and Hoke Avenue, a 14-year-old boy was approached by a man in a white Chevy Blazer who asked the boy to come over to his truck, according to police. The boy kept walking, the man followed him, and the boy ran home.
Jenn Angelis, a Rockville Centre mother of three with a son in the middle school and twins in fifth grade at Wilson elementary school, said of the most recent incident, "The children are aware of what's going on - I spoke to them this morning. I just reiterated to them that there's absolutely no reason for any adult to pull over and ask for directions. So if anyone does that, to run into the house and never to walk up to the car. I reminded them to never walk alone, to have a buddy system. It's a shame. Sad times."
Joseph Kellard and Judy Rattner contributed to this story. Comments about it? Baldwineditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
