Police investigating string of incidents where school kids are being lured or grabbed
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - Multiple law enforcement agencies investigate a string of incidents, where a man or men, tried to lure or grab school kids. Three cases have been reported in less than a month in Williamson and Travis Counties. Luckily in all of the cases the victims got away.
January 4th, police said an 11-year-old girl was walking home from school on Tortoise Street in Pflugerville when an older Hispanic man with an accent offered her a ride.
January 13th, Round Rock police said they got a report of a young girl walking home from school who saw a vehicle drive by, pass her, then make a U-turn. Police said on McNeil road the man pulled up to her and tried to pull her in his vehicle, but luckily she escaped.
Pflugerville PD said they believe it’s the same man in both of these cases.
Emily Braniff is a mother and lives in the Round Rock neighborhood where one of the incidents happened, “It's kind of scary, you feel like you're in a safe neighborhood and you feel like those things don't happen around here. She said she just started letting her young son walk to and from school, near the same time the first case happened. Hearing weeks later of multiple incidents she was concerned. “I don't know if the man has been caught. I don't know if he's still out there. I think it's important that parents know that there's somebody at large so that they can make sure that they are taking precautions,” she said.
The Austin Police Department and Austin Independent School District Police Department are investigating a South Austin incident. AISD said a teenage girl was waiting for the bus January 31st on Congress and Oltorf when she saw two white men staring at her. She told police when she went to get on the bus; one of the men got out of a white truck and tried to grab her.
Law enforcement is suggesting for parents to have the stranger danger talk with their children.
They are also asking if anyone saw anything in South Austin that morning, or recognize the person or people in the composite sketches to call in with any information.