A 13-year-old North Richland Hills boy tells police he was able to escape from the clutches of a stranger who grabbed him from behind and tried to abduct him Tuesday.
North Richland Hills police said Thursday the boy was riding his bicycle at about 9 p.m. near Amundsen Road and Main Street, near Smithfield Middle School and Dick Faram Park, when he heard the driver of a pickup speed up behind him and slam on the brakes.
Moments later, the boy said the driver rushed from the truck and grabbed him by his shoulders but that he was able to free himself and ride away before anything else happened.
"The worst case scenario was if this was a possible abduction we need to find out and we need to find out who this individual is," said Investigator Keith Bauman, spokesman for North Richland Hills police.
The boy described the man as a dark-complected Latino man with short black hair and a goatee. The man is estimated to be between 40- and 50-years-old and about 5 feet 8 inches tall with an average build. He was wearing a stained white T-shirt, bluejeans and brown lace-up work boots.
He was driving a dark green 2-door, extended cab Toyota Tundra with a black utility rack and along the truck bed. The truck is believed to be a model made since 2000.
The police are currently asking for any information that may lead them to a suspect in this case. Anyone with information is asked to call the North Richland Hills Police Department at 817-427-7000.
The area where the incident happened was busy Thursday evening, with cyclists passing through every few minutes, and families playing with young children on the playground at Dick Farrar Park.
Neighbor Marie Day, who was with her 10-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, said she was very concerned about the attempted abduction report.
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"Yesterday, I let my daughter ride up here to the park on her bicycle by herself," Day said. "If I had known about it, she wouldn't have been up here without me."
Cheyenne Day said the incident gave her some concern for her safety when she begins school at Smithfield Middle School this fall, in addition to being in the park this summer.
"Well I'm not coming here for a while," Cheyenne Day said. "And I was gonna ask if I could start reading books here after school but now, unh uh."