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Sunday, May 19, 2013

City offers $10K reward in abduction attempt caught on camera

Police are looking for the man who attempted to abduct a 10-year-old girl as she walked with her 2-year-old brother in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon.

18 comments

City offers $10K reward in abduction attempt caught on camera

POSTED: Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 6:08 PM

This post has been updated.

Police are looking for the man who made a brazen attempt to abduct a 10-year-old girl as she walked with her 2-year-old brother in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon.

Surveillance cameras captured the incident, and police on Wednesday released video showing the man pulling up on Porter Street near Lee in a white car around 3:50 p.m. and following the girl and the toddler around the corner onto Lee Street. In the video, the man then sneaks up behind the kids, picks the girl up and tries to walk away with her before dropping her and fleeing after she puts up a struggle.

Investigators from the Special Victims Unit said the young victim told them it was her brother's screams that eventually helped scare the man off.

Mayor Nutter on Wednesday announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man.

"The message hear is very clear. We need to get this scum off our streets," Nutter said during a press conference at Police Headquarters Wednesday night. "I've never seen a video like this. This is completely insane."

The would-be abductor is described as a Hispanic man between 30 and 40 who's 5 feet 9 to 6 feet tall with a medium complexion, thin build, short, curly black hair and a thin mustache, Special Victims Unit Capt. John Darby said. He wore a black short-sleeved T-shirt and blue jeans and was driving a mid-sized white sedan with a black scuff mark on the driver's side back bumper and a dent on the driver's side front quarter panel. Cops said it's a foreign car and may be late '90s or early-2000s Mitsubishi or Nissan.

Nutter, Darby and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey implored citizens of Philadelphia and the surrounding counties to keep an eye out for the man and call police with any information.

"We just need to find this guy and get him off the street," Ramsey said, adding that the man never closed his car door when he got out to follow the kids. "He had every intention of bringing her back to the car."

Tipsters are asked to call 215-685-3251, text a tip to PPD TIP (773 847) or reach the department online. 

Morgan Zalot and Phillip Lucas @ 6:08 PM  Permalink | 18 comments
18 comments
Comments  (19)
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:29 PM, 07/18/2012
    the car is a mitsubishi mirage - http://www.carid.com/images/remin/spoilers/14l-mitsubishi-mirage.jpg
    padillae
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:19 PM, 07/18/2012
    Crazy.
    SoupKan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:19 PM, 07/18/2012
    Find him and put him down. God, what is our society coming to? Take him out, put him down.
    scoob
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:26 PM, 07/18/2012
    Who lets a 10 year old & 2 year old walk the streets of south Philly?? Good parenting!
    K_Ball
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:40 PM, 07/18/2012
    K_Ball - you're an idiot!
    Ms.Fitt
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:32 PM, 07/18/2012
    K_Ball has a valid point.
    blunted1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:23 PM, 07/18/2012
    This is sickening...can't wait until they catch this sexual predator!
    ms bea
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:31 PM, 07/18/2012
    This comment has been deleted.
    mrjetsondc420
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:02 AM, 07/19/2012
    Exactly! Just like that little girl snatched from her bedroom and murdered in Utah a few weeks ago. Oh wait he was white.

    And if you could actually read, he was Hispanic. Not that you care. You just needed to get that racism off your chest. Feel Better?
    kitobear
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:49 PM, 07/18/2012
    Anyone notice the neighbor standing in the doorway when the girl gets picked up and dropped? He/she does nothing. Couldn't have been more than 30 feet away.
    djack10
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:54 PM, 07/18/2012
    so i guess some of you losers are hoping its a black guy. youre almost as sick as the pervert who tried to kidnap the girl. and even if it is a black dude(and if it is he needs to be put down), white men still have the market cornered on touching little kids. ya'll really need a life.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:04 AM, 07/19/2012
    The racial idiocy on here is always ugly and doesn't stop. South Philly is better off with the new folks that are moving there - beats empty building and empty streets? Whether these new folks are white or immigrants.
    SoundGround
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:02 AM, 07/19/2012
    His best bet is to turn himself in before the father's in the neighborhood find him.
    IsThisForReal
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:30 AM, 07/19/2012
    Mrjetsondc420 the suspect looks like you
    standc


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About this blog

Philly Confidential, which covers crime in Philadelphia and the suburbs, is written by Daily News staffers Dana DiFilippo, Stephanie Farr and Morgan Zalot.

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