Man charged in attempted luring of teen near South Hills Village Mall

BETHEL PARK, Pa. — A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the attempted luring of a teenage girl Wednesday in the parking lot of South Hills Village Mall in Bethel Park.

The 15-year-old victim told police that she was standing outside the Macy’s store at the mall around 3:30 p.m. when a man pulled up next to her in a car, began talking to her and tried to get her to get into his car. %

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“He went around the parking lot again, came back (and) pulled up next to her. She felt uncomfortable, so she wanted to walk home,” John Abraham, the girl’s father, said.

The girl said she started walking on Fort Couch Road toward her house, and the man followed her in his car.

Abraham said his daughter attempted to cut through a parking lot on Fort Couch Road, but the man pulled his car in front of her.

“(He) blocked her so she couldn’t go any further that way and says, ‘Hey, want to have a good time?’” Abraham said.

The girl ran to her house and told her mother what happened, Abraham said.

Police said the girl and her mother got into their car and went looking for the man. They followed his car to a Walgreens next to the mall.

“This is exactly where I found him and followed, and he was circling every entrance to the mall just looking for somebody else,” the girl’s mother, who did not want to be identified, said. %

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Bethel Park police apprehended the man, identified as 29-year-old Bobby Willard, and took him in for questioning. He was later charged with felony-level stalking, criminal attempt, attempted luring of a child into a motor vehicle, corruption of minors and other misdemeanor offenses.

“I want him prosecuted to the fullest,” the girl’s mother said. “He needs to be a registered offender too, in my eyes.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Willard was in the Allegheny County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

Channel 11 News learned that in 2014, Willard pleaded guilty to stalking and open lewdness after police said he drove around Luzerne County following women and exposing himself. One of his alleged victims was a police lieutenant's daughter.

Willard was also charged in a similar case in Lackawanna County in 2014.

Cox Media Group