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Man Tried To Abduct Boy, 2, In Bucktown

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Residents in Bucktown and Wicker Park are on alert after a man reportedly tried to grab a toddler near a neighborhood park.

The attempted abduction happened Thursday at 10:30 a.m., in the 1700 block of North Marshfield, just outside the family's home. A neighborhood the mother always consider safe.

The Wicker Park mother was getting out of her car with her 2-year-old son and nanny in front of her house, when she said a suspicious man approached and attempted to grab her son, CBS 2's Marissa Bailey reports.

"He's walking down here," said mother, Virginia. "The whole time I was looking at him, because his eyes were right on my son. He got to the point where he is right in front of him and he's just staring at him."

The mother and nanny made eye contact. The man at that point snapped out of it, Virginia said, and he said 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'

She called 911, but a formal police report was not filed. The mother also contacted the Gardner preschool, just down the road, as kids play outside in Walsh Park.

A Gardner spokesperson told CBS 2 that the kids will be kept inside Friday as a precaution.

The man has been spotted before in the neighborhood by other parents. Anyone with information on this man is asked to call Chicago Police.

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