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Stalkers Found

July 1, 2008 permalink

A couple in Ft Wayne Indiana noticed a maroon car driving slowly along the edge of the road with it's flashers on. As they got closer, they realized two men in the car were trying to talk to two young girls walking near the road. The couple offered the girls a ride home, to escape the men, and the girls gladly accepted. Police issued a warning to area parents to be on the look out for a suspicious maroon vehicle. Police thought the men inside the vehicle may have been trying to pick up young children.

In this case, the police were right. It turns out the men in the car were child protectors, stalking for prey. In Ontario we have also heard of professional child protectors remaining in a stationary vehicle for hours observing one family, trying to find a pretext for taking the children.

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Police: Suspicious vehicle was Child Protective Services

Updated: July 1, 2008 03:39 PM

Rothman and Maplecrest
Incident took place near the intersection of Rothman and Maplecrest
Michael Joyner
Fort Wayne Police Officer Michael Joyner

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) The investigation into a report of a suspicious vehicle with two men inside has taken a 180 degree turn. Initially police thought the men might have been trying to pick up two young girls. Now they say the occupants were who they said they were, employees of Child Protective Services.

On Monday, Fort Wayne Police issued a warning to area parents to be on the look out for a suspicious maroon vehicle based on information they got from a couple. Police thought the men inside the vehicle may have been trying to pick up young children.

Police issued the warning after the couple, who thought they were being good Samaritans, told them of an incident they were involved with Friday night.

It happened near the intersection of Rothman and Maplecrest, on Fort Wayne's north side.

The couple told police they noticed a maroon car driving slowly along the edge of the road with it's flashers on. As they got closer, they realized two men in the car were trying to talk to two young girls walking near the road. The couple offered the girls a ride home, to escape the men, and the girls gladly accepted.

"The girls indicated they were very uncomfortable with the two men," explained Fort Wayne Police Officer Michael Joyner. "They did not know them, and the citizen took them home to a nearby subdivision."

The couple told police, the two men in the maroon vehicle followed them to the girls' home. That is when the driver, a white man in his early to mid-30s with dark brown curly hair, got out of the car and approached the couple's vehicle. He told them he was with Child Protective Services. He angrily told them he was trying to get the girls home safely. The man showed the couple an i.d. card with "CPS" written on it. The card had no picture, and the man never identified himself by name. The couple left the girls' home, and the maroon car left behind them, without ever making contact with the girls' parents.

On Monday, police said they didn't believe for a second, that the man was with Child Protective Services. They say the department does not work that way. But now they say the men were indeed with CPS, and the car wasn't maroon but was green..

One of the reasons police were so alarmed initially is that the incident came less than a week after two similar incidents in Garrett and Waterloo. In both of those cases, police say it was a white man in his mid to late 30s, driving a pretty junky maroon car that tried to pick up some local kids.

Source: WANE Ft Wayne Indiana

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