ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County deputies said they’ve stepped up patrols in Avalon Park after a mother said her daughter was almost abducted, investigators said.
Two mothers told deputies that their children were riding bicycles Saturday on Avalon Park Boulevard, near the 7-Eleven, when a man tried to pull one of the girls, who is 11 years old, off her bicycle, deputies said. The girls had just left CVS to buy candy.
The girl told investigators that she was able to escape when the second girl grabbed her by the shoulders. The girls told deputies that they rode away on their bicycles and had stopped to rest at a bench when they saw the man again, deputies said. They said they rode away and never saw him again.
The father of the 11-year-old told Eyewitness News that Saturday was the first time he allowed his daughter to ride her bike alone.
"As I keep on thinking more and more about it, it becomes more and more real," the father, who did not want to be identified, told Eyewitness News.
The girl provided a vague description of the attempted abductor. She said he was in his 30s, with dark hair and a beard, deputies said. The father said that deputies and the girl will try to come up with a composite sketch Tuesday.
"It was surreal, and now it's becoming more a real event," the father said to Eyewitness News. "As of right now, she definitely doesn't want to be by herself."
The girl's mother said that before the abduction, she was able to keep track of her daughter with an app that showed the daughter's movements throughout the neighborhood.
Cox Media Group
