LYNNWOOD — Things aren’t always as they seem.
An incident first thought to be a man trying to lure three Alderwood Middle School boys into his car, turns out to be just bad judgment on the part of a parent and the teens, police said.
Alderwood Middle School principal Suzanne Baier sent out a letter to parents last week making them aware of what had supposedly taken place at the bus stop on the corner of 46th Avenue and 192nd in Lynnwood Oct. 14.
According to the letter, a man stopped his car and spoke to the three boys from the school at their bus stop and asked them what they were doing. He then directed them to get in his car and told them he was going to take them to talk with their parents. While this conversation was going on, the school bus approached and the man “fled,” the letter stated.
Between the boys and the school bus driver there was a very good description of the man and the car/license plate.
Lynnwood Police were immediately notified and were able to quickly contact the man described, said detective Sgt. Sean Doty.
Doty said the man admitted he was the one who stopped and talked to the boys at the bus stop, but said there was more to the story.
Apparently, according to Doty, the man, a parent, who had his child in the car with him on his way to daycare, stopped his car to talk with the boys after one of the teens was playing “chicken” in the road and messing around in the middle of the street right in the way of his traveling vehicle.
Doty said the man admitted he was angry with the boy and probably dealt with it wrong, getting in a verbal altercation with them and yes, asking them where their parents were and that he would take them to them so he could tell them about what they were doing in the middle of the street.
As the bus came, he did leave and the boys said to one another ‘Hey, you should report this, he tried to get you in his car,’ Doty said. But what the boys didn’t report to police was the part about them playing chicken in the middle of the street.
The teen later admitted he left that part out of the story.
The man had no criminal history and Doty said police have stopped the investigation.
After talking with the boys again as well, Doty said “We’ve closed this case and we find this gentleman’s story believable.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
