Mother: Man attempted to lure daughter

EIGHT MILE, Ala. (WALA) - An Eight Mile mother said  a man driving a white pick-up truck tried to lure her 7-year-old daughter into his vehicle.

The Mobile County Sheriff's Office and other agencies are now looking for the suspect.

The Eight Mile family said it doesn't feel safe in the neighborhood anymore.

“My daughter, 7 years old, was walking to her friend’s house Tuesday evening at 4:45,” said the mother of the girl, who wanted to remain anonymous.

She said usually around that time of day kids are outside playing and parents checking on them.

“I watched as she walked, and I only lose her view for about 30-feet or so,” said the mother.

Just about every day the girl walks to her friend’s, just a few houses away.

She always calls her mother when she arrives, but Tuesday she got a call that she never wanted to receive.

“Her best friend's big sister, (called) me and said that a man in a white pick-up truck, a white Chevrolet had tried to lure her into the vehicle,” said the girl’s mother, “He told her his puppy was lost, and he'd give her candy if she'd come help him find it.

 But the girl was trained for such an encounter.  She screamed no and ran behind a house to her friend's house and they contacted her mother.

“We've told her exactly what to do. Not to get close enough to the vehicle for them to be able to grab her, not to talk to strangers. If something like this were to happen, to run to the closest person she knows and can trust. And that's exactly what she did,” said the girl’s mother.

The girl’s mother said her daughter described the suspect.

“(My daughter) said that it was a man around 30, with dirty blond hair in a white Chevrolet pick-up truck with a goatee and that he had earrings in both ears,” said the girl’s mother.

 Detectives canvassed the Eight Mile neighborhood Thursday talking to neighbors and handing out fliers.

“He will do it again. He will try to do it again -- these people always do ... Keep your eyes and your ears open and give us any information. Don't try and handle it yourself. Always notify law enforcement,” said, Mobile County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lori Myles.

The Mobile County Sheriff's Office said in May they received similar calls about a man in a white truck trying to lure kids with candy to help him find his lost puppy.  Unfortunately, white trucks are commonplace.

“When you drive down the interstate you see white trucks everywhere,” said Myles.

The girl is back in school, her mother said feeling a little embarrassed by the attention her story is getting.

Call the Mobile County Sheriff's Office or your local police agency if you have any information about this incident.