Children report four separate attempts of luring

In less than two weeks, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office received four complaints of attempted child luring. All the instances involved Central Kitsap children as intended victims, but in neither situation was a child actually abducted.

According to the Sheriff’s office, the incidents occurred between Oct. 19 and Oct. 31 and involved four children — three boys, ages 5, 8 and 12 and an 11-year-old girl.

Three of the alleged luring attempts took place in the vicinity of Brownsville Elementary School and a fourth instance was reported at the 9200 block of Old Military Road in East Bremerton.

The first Brownsville-area incident took place Friday, Oct. 21 near the fence of the playground at Brownsville Elementary. A man, whom the boy described as tall and “skinny,” wearing a mask, offered the student $100 to leave with him.

“The young man acted exactly appropriately,” said Brent Anderson, Brownsville principal. “He quickly realized that that’s not appropriate and ran away from the fence.”

The pupil ran back to a teacher and recounted what happened. The teacher in turn passed the information on to Anderson, who deemed it credible and called 911.

The other two incidents near the school involved a Ridgetop Junior High School student who got off the school bus near Brownsville Elementary and was walking home from there the same day, Oct. 21; another Brownsville pupil also reported being lured on Halloween. Both students were walking home when adult males allegedly tried to lure them into a vehicle.

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