Police Search For Would-Be Abductors In Rogers Park
UPDATED 04/20/12 5:17 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Families in the Rogers Park neighborhood are being told to keep an eye out, as police search for two men who tried to abduct multiple children – the youngest just 4 years old.
As CBS 2's Derrick Blakley and Pamela Jones report, one of the men threatened the children when they kept walking.
Police have issued a community alert, which may be their best weapon in finding the men who were spotted in a white van last month.
"I mean, it's terrifying," said Audrellia Williams, a mother who lives nearby. "You don't your kids to go outside. You have to always be with your children."
It is a feeling held widely by parents and kids in Rogers Park, who are getting their first look at two men who police say are on the prowl.
They allegedly tried to abduct four children, ages of 4 through 12, as they walked to school about 8:30 a.m. on March 26 in the 2100 block of West Jarvis Avenue, according to a community alert.
A white, older model van with tinted windows approached near the intersection of Ridge Boulevard and Jarvis Avenue.
There were two men in the van and the driver demanded to the kids, "Get in the car!"
But the men drove off south on Ridge Boulevard when they spotted a Chicago Police car in the area. The children were not hurt.
The children kept walking and the men continued to follow south on Ridge Boulevard in the van, the alert said.
The other man in the car said, "Get in the car or I'm going to get you in!"
The driver is described as a heavy-set Hispanic man 30-40 with a medium complexion, a black Mohawk haircut and a long braided goatee, wearing a black T-shirt. He had a Latin accent, but the passenger did not.
The other person in the van, also a Hispanic man 30-35, had a dark complexion and no facial hair. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt, had a diamond stud earring in his left ear and a teardrop tattoo under his left eye.
Both are still allegedly looking for children to attack.
"I'm very panicky anyway about stuff like this, because I keep mine with me all day, every day," said Sheneka Meggie, also a mother in the neighborhood.
Meggie and other neighbors saw the community alert about the attempted abductions posted in the lobby of their apartment building Thursday.
"It's like a nightmare for mothers and kids to walk around here, knowing that somebody is just going to take their kids," Williams said.
Police ask that anyone with information about this incident call the Area North detectives at (312) 744-8200.
