Mum’s horror as van driver tries to abduct her 11-year-old daughter by tempting her into his vehicle ‘to see his puppies’
- The 11-year-old girl used a ‘code word’ to alert her mother of the predator
- The suspect attempted to lure the girl into his van with the promise of puppies
- Police say the man was wearing high-vis, steeled-cap boots and a dark beanie
- The mother and daughter were ‘quite terrified’ and remain in ‘utter shock’
An 11-year-old girl has narrowly avoided an attempted abduction after a man tried to lure her into his van by promising to show her his puppies.
The girl was looking after her dog while her mother rushed into a supermarket in the town of Kurow on New Zealand’s South Island on Tuesday.
While she was waiting a man approached her and tried to convince her to get into his vehicle to see puppies he said were inside.
An 11-year-old girl has narrowly avoided an attempted abduction after a man tried to lure her into his van by promising to show her his puppies (stock image)
Suspecting something was wrong, the girl sped into the store and reported the encounter, leaving her mother in ‘utter shock’.
After the sinister approach, the mother and daughter were ‘quite terrified’ and remain in ‘utter shock’.
‘I was quite terrified. It was quite gut-wrenching, really,’ the girl’s mother told the NZ Herald.
Police were full of praise for the girl, who has been taught what to do in such situations by her mother.
‘We actually have a code word, so it’s definitely something we have talked about at length when she was a little bit younger,’ the girl’s mother said.’
‘She is quite proud that she knew something was not right and followed her gut instinct.’
The girl has been left shaken by the incident, and she is now reluctant to sleep alone or be out of her parent’s sight, her mother said.
Police said the man was in his 60s, had a skinny build, was wearing a high-vis jacket, blue jeans, steel-capped boots, a dark beanie and a moustache.