Man Charged With Trying To Abduct Young Children In Lisle, Addison
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A west suburban man accused of trying to abduct young children on several occasions has been ordered held without bond after his arrest Monday.
Giuseppe Ressa, 34, is charged with three counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and three counts of child abduction, according to a statement from the DuPage County state's attorney's office.
Authorities started investigating May 27 after Ressa approached a 5-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sister as they were playing in the playground of their apartment complex on Dogwood Drive in Lisle, prosecutors said.
The man tried to lure the children to his vehicle by promising toys and a game of hide and seek, police said at the time.
Ressa also touched the girl as she played on a slide, prosecutors said. The boy at first started to walk with Ressa to his vehicle, but returned when his sister called him back.
An older sibling then came and took the children home, and their parents immediately called police.
Lisle police identified Ressa as a possible suspect, and were conducting surveillance Monday when they saw him with three young children in front of an Addison apartment building.
He told the 7-year-old girl, 4-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl that he would give them candy if they followed him to another apartment building, police said.
The younger children began to follow, but the older girl ran to tell her mother what was happening, police said. Detectives intervened after they saw Ressa rub one of the children's legs, and arrested him.
Ressa, of the 300 block of Post Oak Circle in West Chicago, was ordered held without bond at a hearing Thursday, the state's attorney's office said. He will next appear in court June 30.
"Through exceptional police work and the fact that the children involved came forward, Mr. Ressa faces some very serious allegations," DuPage County state's attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement.
"Though very disturbing, this case should serve as a notice to parents to remind their children that there are some very dangerous people in the world and that if approached by a stranger, they should get away from that person and tell a trusted adult," Berlin said.
