Philadelphia police investigate string of attempted child lurings

FRANKFORD (WTXF) - A surveillance picture shows the car police believe a man has been driving while attempting to lure little girls in the Northeast. It's black with tinted windows. Philadelphia's Special Victims Unit says so far there have been six incidents beginning Tuesday. The most recent ones happened this morning.

Around 8:10 a.m. on Jackson Street a girl says she was walking to school when the man in the car approached her with money in his hand. He asked her if he could take her picture for money.

"I don't even understand what's going on," said Kate Tierney. She's one of many residents who are stunned to hear what happened. Detectives spent the morning investigating a second incident on Gillespie Street where a girl was walking to school when she says the man pulled up, got out of the car and asked her to come over. The girl says he was unzipping his pants.

"It's so close to home. I don't even know what to think right now," said Tierney.

Another woman who didn't want to show her face says one of the girls came running to her for help.
"She said to me the man in the black car. That's all she told me and I was trying to ask her what happened and she just said the man in the black car," said the woman.

Yesterday, a girl told police she was in the courtyard at Sullivan School on Ditman Street when she saw a man taking pictures and recording the kids. Two other incidents earlier in the week were reported near Watson Comly School on Byberry Road and on Tomlinson Road.

Police ask parents to warn their children.

"If somebody's trying to get you in a car don't do it. Don't do it. If you feel apprehensive at all just walk away or run away if you have to," said Captain Mark Burgmann.

The girls approached in these incidents are all believed to be 10 years old.