HIGHLAND COURT- Suspicious Activity

In Highland Court, along Filbert Road, on Friday night, March 19, between 7-8pm, a light grey late 80's early 90's Toyota pickup, with a small extended cab (with a little skinny second window), drove slowly by the park and a nearby house. 10 minutes later the truck slowly drove by the house again from the other direction. Some boys were all playing together, but scattered when they saw the truck. One boy was in the park hiding behind the trees when the truck’s occupants spotted him and stopped. They yelled out telling him they had candy. He continued to hide from them. When he didn't respond, they drove slowly away. Another boy was walking in a little alley nearby when the people in the truck hollered at him asking if he wanted candy. He just kept walking and they left him alone.

The boys believe there were two women/girls in the truck. A homeowner’s security camera did capture video of the truck which was turned over to the Sheriff’s Office. Responding deputies thought because it was two girls, it was hopefully just a prank.

Comment: I have said this many times before and will probably say it again. While the prospect of a stranger abducting your child is scary for a parent, only about 3 or 4 % of child sexual assault is conducted by strangers. Over 90% of child sexual assaults are conducted by someone the child knows.

We usually hear about the strangers who act suspiciously around children, often by the press, but we do not hear about the quiet assault by someone who the child knows. Most sexual predators will not grab a child off the street. They will want to “groom” the child and the parents so that they are lulled into complacency so that the predator can eventually lure the child to accept being assaulted.

There are simple techniques that you can teach your child without him or her having to try to determine friends from strangers. Go to the following link on the Sheriff’s Office web site for information on how to train your child:

http://sheriff.snoco.org/Documents/marapr05.pdf

Also, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has good guidance for parents:

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=713

Even though a stranger assault on children may be statistically small, that threat will always be a concern for parents. When we see someone acting strangely, especially around children, we will report it to the police and to our neighbors. Let’s just be aware that there is more to the sexual assault threat to your children than strangers.