PORT TOWNSEND — Police were investigating Thursday a report of attempted luring of a child near Blue Heron Middle School, a week after a similar report was made in the same area.
At about 8 a.m. Wednesday, an 11-year-old Port Townsend girl was riding her bicycle on San Juan Avenue about six blocks south of the school when she encountered a white van pulling into the bicycle lane blocking her path, according to a prepared statement form Officer Luke Bogues, Port Townsend Police Department spokesman.
The driver rolled down the passenger-side window and told the girl her mother instructed him to give her a ride to school, Bogues said.
The girl, who police did not identify, asked him her mother’s name. He didn’t know it, so she quickly rode her bicycle away to the school at 3939 San Juan Ave.
The girl described the man as being in his 50s and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt low over his face, Bogues said. She saw no facial hair. She reported he had a nose-piercing.
The white van had three windows down the side and two on the back doors, the girl told police.
She said the windows were hard to look through, possibly because of things obstructing the windows. There may have been a large dog in the back of the van, she said.
She did not initially report this to an adult, Bogues said. She told a friend at school who in turn notified his parents.
A week earlier, at 8 a.m. Wednesday, 11-year-old Ashton Hoye was riding his bike to Blue Heron Middle School when he had a similar experience around Haines Street and 33rd Street, which feeds into San Juan Avenue.
A man blocked his path, offered him candy and told him to come to him.
Instead, the boy rode away and reported the encounter to a school counselor, who notified police.
The boy described the man who approached him as having white facial hair and driving a white van with no windows.
The boy said the man was missing his front teeth and wore a blue baseball cap with green writing, a dirty white T-shirt and dirty blue jeans.
After initial reports of that incident were released, a 13-year-old girl told police that a man in a white van approached her off Umatilla Avenue last spring and offered a ride to the highway.
Anybody with information in any of these incidents is asked to call Detective Devin McBride at (360)
Port Townsend Police Department officers have patrolled the area of Blue Heron and other locations where young people gather, Bogues said.
The investigation into both incidents is continuing, he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Devin McBride at 360-390-8938.
Anyone seeing a suspicious person or vehicle should call 9-1-1, police said.
