11-Year-Old Girl Followed by Strange Man Then Grabbed While Walking to School
When we were younger, a lot of us walked to and from school alone. Even as elementary school children, we thought it was safe to walk the streets without parental supervision.
For many of us it was, but just in case it wasn’t, our parents taught us to not talk to strangers. And, in any danger we encountered, they told us to scream for help and run away.
In CCTV footage released by a concerned father in Manchester, England, this same scenario happened to a schoolgirl.
Father-of-three John Southern, 36, just so happened to live near the area where the attempted abduction occurred.
He handed over the video to Manchester Evening News, which has now alerted police investigation.
After he and his wife received a warning letter from Crab Lane Primary School, Southern was prompted to check the surveillance footage.
What it revealed was something no father should have to worry about. In the clip, an 11-year-old girl wearing a pink jacket was seen walking to school around 8:30 a.m on a Wednesday morning.
An unidentified man, clothed in a blue hooded jacket, also entered the frame trailing close behind the young child. Once she noticed he was following her, she turned around to face the stranger.
The man suddenly grabbed her by the arm, but the schoolgirl was able to break free and walk away quickly.
The footage continued to show the man following her until a few trees and shrubs block the camera view.
Suddenly coming back into view, the 11-year-old was sprinting away for her life. Watching the heart-racing clip was a “major issue” for Southern.
“My eldest daughter left for school eight minutes after this happened,” Southern said. “I just want everyone to be aware.”
The school’s headteacher, Pat Adams, spoke on the incident in a letter while also mentioning that a similar one happened just a day before.
Fortunately, the young child in this video escaped the attempted abduction unharmed.
“The police suspect that the two incidents are connected, given the short distance between them and the fact that both girls gave a similar description of the man in question,” Adams wrote.
As a reminder, Adams also mentioned the importance of parents teaching their kids about the “stranger danger” tactic.
It’s unknown if the children used it in these most recent situations, but even so, bravery truly helped them escape.
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