An 11-year-old girl is being credited for her behaviour — and accurate recollection — after being approached by a man in a car in East Vancouver on Thursday.
Just after 4 p.m., the young girl was walking along Windermere Street in a residential neighbourhourhood near Charles Street. A man pulled up beside her in a car and tried to engage her in conversation, Const. Jason Doucette said at a Vancouver Police Department press conference on Friday afternoon.
The driver asked the girl if she needed a ride and if she needed money. The girl did not know the man and quickly declined. He drove off without further attempts to make contact.
“This young girl did the right thing when she was approached by a stranger,” says Doucette. Uncomfortable with the man's approach, she went home and told her parents who called police. When officers interviewed the girl, she was able to describe the man, his car and what happened.
Later, the police obtained a video of the interaction. "She gave an accurate account of what happened," Doucette says. When compared to the video footage, "it was picture perfect of what she described."
The police are not yet releasing the video but they have shared a photo of the car and driver.
Police say the vehicle is a silver, two-door sedan, likely a Chevy Cavalier or a Pontiac Sunfire. The driver is described as a white man in his 40s, with a thin build, and a thick brown moustache. He was wearing glasses and a dark blue jacket with stripes down the sleeves.
Doucette is confident that when people see the photo, someone will be able to help police identify the man. It may turn out that when they speak to the driver, police discover his intentions weren't ill-willed but "until we confirm the man’s intentions, we are advising the public of this suspicious incident," he said, adding that they were treating the situation with an "abundance of caution."
Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to contact detectives at 604-717-0602 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
