DANVILLE, Ind. (WTHR) - Police say an alert issued Sunday about a suspicious Jeep can now be clarified and that there was never a threat to the public.
Two girls reported that the person in a black Jeep had approached them in a Danville neighborhood late Sunday afternoon. After an investigation, an interview of the person driving the Jeep and a re-interview of the girls involved, it was determined that the person in the Jeep was an acquaintance who was driving a different vehicle than usual.
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Police are looking for the driver of a Jeep who approached two young girls in the Stratford Ridge subdivision just off State Road 36 east of Ellis Park.
Officers were quick to share the information on social media, including clear security camera images of the suspect vehicle.
"This guy, he had his turn signal on," said a seventh grader, one of the girls approached by a stranger in a black Jeep Wrangler hardtop. "He pulled up by our driveway, started yelling at us and told us come on over to the car, get in the car."
The girls, on a front lawn about 5:00 pm when the stranger drove up, knew exactly what to do.
"I just ran in the garage." All those warnings from her parents, she said, popped into her mind.
"My parents, they just said don’t take stuff, don’t talk to people. If you don’t know them, don’t talk to them and if somebody was going to pick me up my mom would tell me."
"I’ve got two kids, it gives me lots of concerns," said Debbie McGovern, who lives down the street. She has kids about the same age as the girls targeted Sunday.
"Since they’ve been about three years old we have always told them 'watch out for strangers.' We teach than that all the time. That’s very scary that that happened."
"That was scary," said neighbor and father Brandon Lawson. He’s always warned his kids, too.
"You hope you’ve told him enough already 'be careful.' You hate to be that overprotective guy that says 'don’t talk to strangers,' but in this world we live in sometimes that’s probably best."
Police want to talk to the driver of that Jeep. If you have any information, call Danville police or you can reach them anonymously on their tip line at (317) 745-3001.