DUNWOODY | Mysterious man in blue van may be 'stalking' kids | News

DUNWOODY, Ga. -- Parents and police are on alert, watching for a man who drives a blue van, who may be stalking their children in a Dunwoody neighborhood off of Roberts Road.

"It's scary," said one of the parents, who told 11Alive's Jon Shirek she saw what could have been the suspicious man and van on Monday afternoon.

It was this past Thursday, February 16, after school at 4 p.m., when a 10-year-old girl in the Wyntercreek subdivision ran home "hysterically crying," according to the police report.

She told her father that a man, possibly in his 30s and driving a blue van, had pulled up to her and stopped as she was walking her dog, near her home.

"The Hispanic male asked her how old she was," speaking to her in English, said Dunwoody Police Sgt. Mike Carlson. "The juvenile got a little frightened, and she ended up fleeing the scene and going to a neighbor's garage."

Sgt. Carlson said the girl did exactly what she was supposed to do, and, immediately, according to the police report, the mysterious man "drove away at a high rate of speed."

This is what police know -- the van is blue, has dealer drive-out tags, and it had a magnetic sign on the side that read, "appliance services."

Then, Monday afternoon, Wyntercreek parents, on the lookout after what happened on Thursday, spotted a blue van again in their neighborhood, driving slowly until the driver realized they were trying to flag him down.

"He just didn't even look over at us, just drove very quickly by," said one of the witnesses, a parent from the neighborhood who asked that her identity not be used out of concern for her family's safety.

"It was going very slow," she said late Monday afternoon. Her cousin spotted it first. "It didn't seem like it knew where it was going."

She saw it herself about an hour later. "What was it doing here?"

They did not get a good look at the driver, but they called police -- the community's "neighborhood watch" program had kicked into high gear after the incident with the blue van four days earlier.

She said the driver apparently realized they were watching him.

"Then he pulled down the street, turned around, and very quickly drove past us as we were kind of flagging him down to stop him. And it had temporary tags" like the blue van from Thursday.

"We went towards the street, just putting our hands up [to ask], 'Do you need directions?'  And he just didn't even look over at us, just drove very quickly by."

As she described the "sighting" and spoke of everyone's concerns, other parents chatted with each other outside their homes, as their children ran, laughed, and rode bikes up and down the street.

"This [van] just looked strange," she said, "The kids were all out playing, and it was a day off from school. I just felt like, why is this weird van, for an hour, roaming around my neighborhood?"

Families in the subdivision have already taught their children well, taught them the smart defenses that police advise that children should learn against unknown drivers approaching them, including --

• Run straight to the closet neighbor's house who you know, if it's closer than your own home
• If possible, run in the direction that is opposite the direction that the stranger's car is pointing
• If possible, stay in groups

"I just make sure that we know where our kids are at all times, and that they're with a group, and that we make our kids aware of what to do when they are approached by a strange car," the witness said. 

"She knew what she was supposed to do," said Sgt. Carlson of the 10-year-old girl. "He never got out of the van, he just asked her how old she was... She knew something didn't feel right and she reacted and it was the appropriate response."

Now that the alert is out, police say the man may find another neighborhood, somewhere, to stalk -- if that's what he's doing.

"Now that we've seen this in the area twice -- the first time it raised a red flag, but now we know he's coming back -- we need to identify him."

So if anyone has any more possible sightings, Sgt. Carlson urges them to do what the parents of Wyntercreek did -- call 911.