Pinellas Park Police Department

Press Release 2006-8186

Attempt Abduction of Police Explorer at City Festival

Occ:  3/18/2006  5:45 PM

On 3/18, information was released by Pinellas Park Police Communications reference an attempted abduction of a police explorer at the Country in the Park festival.  The following is an update to this initial release.

On 3/18, the City of Pinellas Park was conducting its annual Country in the Park festival located at the festival grounds of 5121 80th Terrace North.  Police Explorers are routinely used to assist with parking and traffic flow.  Two explorers were assigned to a parking lot just north of the City Hall, two females ages 14 and 15.  They were both wearing Police Explorer uniforms and had radio communications with police explorer advisors and police dispatch.

At approx 5:45 PM a white mini van pulled into the parking lot next to the two explorers.  Inside were two males and a female, all three described by the two explorers as being elderly, their ages between 60-70 yoa.  The male passenger in the van asked the 14 yoa explorer for directions, showing her a map of the festival site.  The explorer directed the man to a parking area north of them because her parking lot was full.  The conversation changed and the male passenger of the van made comments to the explorer that she looked overheated and that she should come inside the van to cool off.  The explorer was visibly sunburned but refused the offer.  The male passenger then exited the van and opened the sliding side door of the van, exposing where the elderly female passenger was sitting behind driver.  The male passenger again insisted that she have a seat in the van to cool off.  He also made statements that she would enjoy sitting in the leather seats.  This time he grabbed hold of the explorer's left arm and tried to direct her toward the van's open sliding door area.  The explorer again refused, pushed away from the van and pulled away from the male.  Once the explorer pulled away, there apparently was no further conversation and the male passenger got back into the van and the van traveled north into the general parking lot that the explorer had directed them to go to in the first place.  The two explorers observed the van enter the lot but did not see where it parked.

The two explorers waited a few minutes and then walked through the parking lot area to look for the suspect van.  They did see a van that looked like the van involved.  This van had an Illinois tag on it.  The two explorers then went to an explorer supervisor and reported the incident, who then reported it to one of the on-site police officers.  The explorers took the officers back to the van in the parking lot.  The officers identified the owner of the van and located the owner and occupants in the festival.  The two explorers were shown these people and they stated that these people were not the people involved.  They continued to search the parking lot for the suspect van but were unable to locate another van they thought was involved.  The two explorers were then taken through the festival site to look for the three subjects involved but again were unable to locate anyone matching those involved.

At this time, police officials are treating the investigation as an attempt abduction because no one has been identified or located to offer any other plausible explanation for the suspects actions.  The police explorer victim states that she felt very uncomfortable with the situation because the male suspect who grabbed hold of her arm did so with more force than what she would have expected if the subject was just trying to be a good samaritan in offering her a place to sit down out of the heat.

The only facts known at this time are that there were three elderly persons inside the van.  Two males and one female, and all three were caucasian.  The Van was white and had a sliding side door with leather seats inside.  The tag on the van is unknown, even for the state.  The explorers did say the people in the van were clean cut, not dirty looking.  The van was also clean.  We have no other description of the people or the van.

The police department is not releasing the names of the two explorers as they are both juveniles, and we are not making them available for interview.  All requests for any further information should be directed to Captain S. A. Forseth @ 727-541-0792 or 727-214-7724.