An 11-year-old girl in Arizona used a code word that saved her from a possible abduction, officials said.
The girl was walking with a friend in Pinal County in the North Pecan Creek neighborhood near Gantzel and Ocotillo Roads around 3:45 p.m. on Nov. 7.
A man drove up to the pair and said that her brothers had gotten in an accident. She needed to come with him, the man said.
That’s when the girl, suspicious of him, asked him for the “code word.” He didn’t respond but drove off.
Warning:On Wednesday, November 7th, a Pinal County deputy responded to a home in the North Pecan Creek neighborhood…
تم النشر بواسطة Pinal County Sheriff's Office في الخميس، ٨ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨
“Kudos to the parents of this child for having a code word and talking about to their children about stranger danger,” said Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in a statement. “We hope by putting this out, it will encourage parents to have that.”
Children in the neighborhood said they’ve seen the man circling the area several times a day. The 11-year-old girl said the man covered most of his face while talking with her.
He is described as a white male, possibly in his 40s, with a short beard. The SUV was described as possibly similar to a Ford Explorer. The sheriff’s office is asking people to be on alert and call it at 520-866-5111 with any information.
Man tried to lure 11-year-old girl in San Tan Valley, fled after not knowing "code word": https://t.co/tRen64cma0 #abc15 pic.twitter.com/LGEzK45QdA
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) November 9, 2018
Parents Speak Out
The girl’s parents said that they came up with the code words recently.
“We actually just came up that few months ago. So it was something really recent from a story that I read,” mother Brenda James told ABC 15. “This one time, it saved my daughters life.”
“I’m very proud of her, ya know … she did the right thing and knew what to do,” James added to 3TV.
She said her daughter called her at work and was crying.
“So I just kind of calmed her down and she told me that some guy tried to take her,” James said. “And all my thoughts went out the window at that point and I got in my car and I drove home.”
The girl skipped school the next day because she was so shaken up.
Neighbors said they wanted to implement the same system.
“This is generally what I consider a pretty safe area, I’ve never heard of anything bad,” Patrick McDonald, who lives nearby, told ABC 15.
“I’ll definitely be going home and having a talk with my daughter and developing a code word at the very least.”
