Tensions were high for Hollister police officials Monday when
two youths reported what they thought was an attempted kidnapping
near Marguerite Maze Middle School.
Tensions were high for Hollister police officials Monday when two youths reported what they thought was an attempted kidnapping near Marguerite Maze Middle School.
Two 11-year-old Hollister girls reported that a man in a chocolate brown colored van tried to kidnap them while they were walking along Meridian Street near the middle school at about 3:20 p.m., police said.
According to the HPD, an unidentified man in a brown van pulled next to the two girls and asked them if they wanted to get in the van and go somewhere with him.
The girls refused and kept walking, police said. However, the van, with no side windows, continued to follow the youths for a short distance until they ran to the school to call for help. The brown van then drove away from the area, police said. The names of the girls were not released because of their age.
Police said it is unlikely that the incident was an attempted kidnapping because the van’s driver made no attempt to grab the youths or to try and force them into his vehicle.
However, police said in the interest of public safety, they will conduct a full investigation.
“It’s important that we follow up on this and treat every report as though it may have been the real thing, in the event that it was an actual attempted kidnapping,” Capt. Richard Vasquez said.
Vasquez said that if the department did not follow through with the investigation and it turns out that the person in the brown van was a would-be kidnapper, to not track him down might encourage him to carry through with such an act in the future.
