Local

Rochester Township Police Department investigating several reports of child luring attempts

ROCHESTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — It’s a scary situation. Channel 11 spoke with several mothers who tell me their kids are now afraid to play outside.

Mothers are on alert after they say an elderly woman tried to lure young boys into her vehicle along their street in the last few weeks.

Stephanie Lester says this happened to her son last Saturday in the middle of the day along Pennsylvania Avenue. She said a woman in a silver SUV used cookies to try to get her son in the car.

“He was riding on his scooter, goes down the hill and when he stopped looked down at his phone, that’s when she approached him. Tried to get him in the car and he came and told me immediately,” said mother Stephanie Lester.

Lester shared a surveillance photo of the alleged vehicle. Days before, Brittany Jones says the same woman with grey hair in a different vehicle, a black SUV, approached her son while he was outside with friends.

“She rolled her window down and said do you want to go to Giant Eagle with me. I just left church, I’m lonely and he told her no,” said Brittany Jones.

That same day, Ashley Godfrey saw the woman parked near her house.

“It’s like she’s watching the children. It makes us feel really unsafe. The kids are scared. My son doesn’t he want to walk down the street by himself,” said Ashley Godfrey.

Over in Rochester borough, a mom said the woman pulled up to her son on May 24.

“He told me an older lady tried to pick him up and take him to Dollar General around the corner from my house he said no thank you and rushed away from her car,” said mother Bethany Haynes.

Right now, Rochester Township police are warning parents about these disturbing incidents and want the community to be on the lookout.

“We are just asking parents to keep an eye out on their kids make sure they see suspicious a vehicle driving slow get the plate call us so we can immediately investigate to make sure someone isn’t trying to lure kids into cars,” said Sgt. Kevin Foltz.

Anyone with information on this case should call Rochester Township police.