UPDATE: Suspicious man who approached students in Merlin sent home
Police have a man in custody after an attempt was made to reportedly lure high school girls into a vehicle in Merlin.
The Chatham-Kent Police Service said on Wednesday at around 7:15 a.m., officers responded to Merlin for a report of a suspicious person who had "approached several high school age students waiting for their bus."
A man was located by officers and arrested for an "unrelated matter".
Police do not believe there is an imminent threat to public safety, but are not commenting further on the incident.
"The suspect in this matter was arrested by officers and is being held while the matter is further investigated," said Constable Douglas Littlewood in an email to BlackburnNews.com. "The investigation is on-going so I will not be making specific comments towards this occurrence at this time."
Prior to receiving information from police, BlackburnNews.com was contacted by concerned parents who witnessed the events.
The parents said the suspicious man got out of his grey SUV and approached three female students and a male student who were waiting for the bus. He reportedly tried to give them a coat and some doughnuts. He also gave one of the girls $150 and another $50 each to the other two girls before asking them to get into the vehicle. The girls, who the parents said were between the ages of 13 to 15, refused to get in. The man then approached four other bus stops in the Merlin area where children were present.
One parent said they followed the man's vehicle until police boxed him in on Middle Line between Valetta Road and Oak Road, and took him into custody.
Gary Girardi, a superintendent of education with the Lambton-Kent District School Board, stressed that this is believed to have been an isolated incident. He said parents of the students involved have been contacted by the board, and letters have been sent to all parents who have children within the school board to inform them of Wednesday morning's incident.
"We work very closely with the police and our coterminous board in order to make sure we have clear messaging and that we inform parents where necessary," he said. "When we do have conversations with parents and with staff, we try and be as accurate as possible, and that means having good communication with our community partners."
-With files from Matt Weverink
