Crime & Safety

Investigation into Attempted Child Abduction Still Open

Police are still looking into the incident involving a middle school girl last week, but urge parents to use the opportunity to address safety with their children.

The investigation into the attempted abduction of a student last week is still open and ongoing, according to Bowie police.

On Sept. 6, the student—an 11-year-old girl—said that a man in a green car repeatedly tried to coax her into his vehicle after school was dismissed that day. The girl said the man told her that her mother had sent him to pick her up from school, but the girl refused to get into the car and returned home safely.

The man was described as having light skin, wearing sunglasses and operating a light green sedan, according to Bowie police. No additional suspect information is available at this time, Sgt. John Knott, of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Bowie Police Department, told Patch in an email.

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Knott said he was not aware of any similar incident in the area.

Police are urging parents to talk to their children about being safe after school.

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“Parents should take this opportunity to open a dialog with their children,” Knott wrote in the email. “Talk about who a stranger is (“not just the old man in a trench coat”), any person they don’t know.” 

Knott suggested parents create a code word known only to them and their own children. That way, if someone approaches a child saying he was sent by a parent, the child can ask for the code word. If the person doesn’t know the code word, the child should run to a safe area or yell “stranger.”

Knott also suggested that parents make sure work and cell phone numbers are located in an easy place for children to access, such as the refrigerator door, and that parents make sure children know how to operate a phone to reach them.

If parents are not home when children return from school, it may also be a good idea to designate a safe house on the block where a parent is home and children can go if there is a problem.


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