A 12-year-old girl foiled an attempted abduction in Grinnell Thursday afternoon. Grinnell Police report that the girl was walking in the 1,300 block of Prairie Street when a van containing two male subjects came up slowly behind her.
The passenger jumped out of the van and yelled, "hey, little girl!" The girl fled and the man chased her. She ran to a nearby neighbor’s house for safety. Grinnell Police Chief Jody Matherly says the girl got a pretty good look at the subjects.
"For a 12-year-old girl, she did pretty good on her description. So, we’ve got a little bit to work with here and our goal is to get to the bottom of it," Matherly said. The passenger is described as a 50 to 55-year-old, thin, white male, with an unshaven, wrinkled face with some freckles. He had missing and crooked teeth, thinning sandy brown or blonde hair, and was wearing light colored blue jeans with holes in them and some white paint on them.
The driver is described as a 65-year-old white male, with a thin face, thinning white hair and glasses. The vehicle is described as a beat up, older white van with tinted windows and a dent on the passenger side sliding door. Police have been canvassing the neighborhood to find other possible witnesses to the incident.