Holmes Middle Schooler Approached By Stranger

A Holmes Middle School student said a stranger tried to get her into his car while she was walking to her bus stop in west Colorado Springs, the latest in a series of “stranger danger” incidents in the area during the current school year.

It happened just before 8 a.m. Thursday near the Buffalo Lodge Motel at 2 El Paso Blvd. The girl said she was walking north on Columbia Road, towards the bus stop, when a man driving a silver or gray minivan stopped beside her, saying “Hello,” as he waved at her. The girl said she continued walking, and the van drove out of sight.

Police said the girl used her cellphone to inform her mother about the incident, and that her mother told the girl to walk to the bus stop and wait there. The girl arrived at the bus stop, police said, and sat on a wooden box on the northwest corner of the ColumbiaRoad and El Paso Boulevard intersection.

The same van then came south on Columbia and turned westbound on El Paso, police said. According to investigators, the man stopped, leaned toward the passenger window and asked the girl if she needed a ride. She told him no, police said, and the man told her to get in the vehicle. Police said the girl phoned her father, and the man drove away.

Police said the father came to the bus stop, and the van never returned to the area.

The man in the van is described as a heavyset black man in his 40s. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a dark baseball-style hat. The girl said nothing stood out about the van or the man inside, police said.

“It appears in this case that he saw she was alone and maybe he felt comfortable, and that’s why he came back around again,” said police spokeswoman Barbara Miller.

Melissa Laveirge walks her two young children to and from a school bus stop regularly and responded to the incident.

“It makes me feel a little less secure in my neighborhood,” she said. “I guess it’s put a little more caution in my mind. My kids know what to do if they don’t know a person — run away, yell for help, get away.”

Miller said getting to a scene earlier gives police a better chance to catch a suspect. However, she said police often are the last to learn of a situation, after parents and school officials. By then, a suspect often has escaped.

While it’s unrealistic to expect children to memorize a license plate during such an incident, said Miller, children can learn to spot specific details to give officers more to work with. Miller used a family eating out as an example.

“When that server leaves the table, ask your child to describe five things about that server,” she said. “Height, weight or any characteristics that may be unusual or different. Using a vehicle works the same way. That puts children in a mood to learn more.”

Along with walking in groups and having a cellphone, Miller said children should trust their instincts.

“If they have a phone, call 911,” she said. “If they don’t, start running in the opposite direction.”