- Sasha Shepherd, 13, was cycling back to his house in Sandling, Kent at 9pm
- A Transit van cut across his path and screeched to a stop, blocking the road
- The van door was flung open by the van but the terrified teenager ran away
- Sasha later told detectives the same van had passed him 15 minutes earlier
A police hunt is underway after a man tried to drag a teenager into his van as the youngster cycled home.
Sasha Shepherd, 13, was riding back to his house in Sandling, Kent at 9pm when the Transit van cut across his path and screeched to a stop.
The van door was flung open by the van but the terrified teenager dropped his bike and ran, flagging down another driver who called the police.
The dance champion’s mother Angelika revealed how she received a call from a friend, who said: ‘A pervert’s trying to kidnap your son.’
Sasha’s mother Angelika says she was found private CCTV footage which shows the van travelling along Sandling Road
Sasha told detectives the same van had passed him 15 minutes earlier at the Chiltern Hundreds roundabout, travelling towards Maidstone.
Angelika, 55, a mindset coach, said he now ‘gets shivers’ every time a van passes him in the street.
‘It will take him a while to get over this because the experience really shook him up.
‘He is street wise and does boxing so he is not easily scared, but when I picked him up he was shaking. It was pitch black out there.
‘There is no other reason for a grown man to stop a van in front of a child that late at night on a dark road and get out. There is a predator out there.’
Doing some detective work of her own, Angelika found private CCTV footage which shows the van travelling along Sandling Road.
‘I just couldn’t live with myself if anything did happen to another child because we didn’t take this incident seriously enough,’ she added.
Anyone with information should contact Kent Police on 01622 604100 quoting reference 02-1463.
Angelika Shepherd (shown right) said her son Sasha (left) now ‘gets shivers’ every time a van passes him in the street