Strangers approach Chch pupils

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 9

Strangers approach Chch pupils

Seven reports have been made of children being approached by men offering them lifts in cars in Christchurch in the last week.

The police are concerned about the number of incidents and have warned parents to remind their children not to speak to strangers. A boy, aged eight, walking to school in Woolston on Friday, June 19, was approached by a man who asked him to get into a vehicle. The boy refused but was followed to school by the man. The man was described as European, aged in his 40s. On Monday and Tuesday a man in a green car, thought to be -a Mitsubishi, approached two boys, aged 11, in Breezes Road and offered them a ride. In both cases, the boys refused. ,i

Two primary schoolchildren were approached by a man outside the Avondale Primary School on Wednesday at 3 p.m. He was said to be driving a yellow Mitsubishi car. The school reported also an incident involving

a blue Falcon car. On Thursday a young girl was approached by a man in a yellow Toyota outside Chisnallwood Intermediate School which backs on to Avondale Primary School. That afternoon a child was followed along Stanmore Road by a man driving a red Toyota. The man was described as European in his mid-30s. Detective, Senior-Ser-geant Colin Dalzell said the incidents did not appear to be linked although it could not be overlooked that one man could have access to a number of cars.

He did not know whether the reports indicated an increase in the type of incident or whether the disappearance of the Napier schoolgirl, Teresa Cormack, had prompted parents to listen more closely to what their children were saying and so report incidents. The encouraging factor was that children were showing good sense and had not accepted any of the. offers of rides, he