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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Temple student escapes abductor in Center City

A Temple University student was briefly abducted earlier this week by a sly fiend who lured her with a call for help.
Police said the 20-year-old woman was walking on 16th Street near Market about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when she heard a man say, “Can someone help me with this seat?”
She spotted a 20-something black man who was standing next to a black four-door sedan that was parked with its motor running.
The man claimed he was having trouble securing his baby’s car seat. When the woman leaned in head-first to examine the seat,the assailant forced her into the sedan and locked the door, said Capt. John Darby, of the police Special Victims Unit.
As the terrified woman realized that the “baby” was actually a stuffed animal, her abductor got behind the steering wheel and drove off.
Darby said the man threatened to shoot her if she tried to flee. A black handgun rested next to him on a center console.
The abduction, however, was short-lived.
The woman bolted out of the car when the kidnapper stopped at a traffic light near 16th and JFK Boulevard, Darby said. She was not harmed.
She described the abductor as being muscular, about 5-foot-10 and having low-cut hair and a beard.
Darby described the incident as “quite unusual and disturbing.” He said it was the first time he had heard of a man using “props” to lure an unsuspecting woman into a car.
Temple University Campus Safety Services sent a memo to students earlier today warning them about the incident.
The abduction occurred just three days after a man groped and punched a 21-year-old woman as she entered her apartment building near 21st and Locust streets.
Tipsters can contact the SVU at 215-685-3251.
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About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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