The incident occurred as the girl was walking home from her bus stop about 4 p.m. Tuesday on Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Ronald Reagan Parkway in Davenport. She was headed east on the sidewalk along Ronald Reagan Parkway when a car heading west pulled up.
Key informationSuspect: A white man in his late 40s to early 50s with short hair, salt-and-pepper goatee and a sunburned or red complexion. He wore a dark green shirt with orange letters on the front.Vehicle: A 2000-model white four-door with tinted windows, black rims and a black back bumper.
"There's monsters out there trying to abduct little children," said Hector Gonzalez, a parent who lives very near the victim's home.
He said he tells his children, who are 11 and 14, to take no chances with strangers.
"I told them, run fast and scream for help, knock on every door that you can get to, whatever you do, stay away from the car, stay away from the individual," Gonzalez said.
Law enforcement agencies across the country recommend that parents not have their kids walk home alone from the bus stop and should try and organize groups of children to walk together.
They also say parents should tell kids that if they are being abducted or followed by a stranger, to say "Help, call the police," "Help, this is not my mom," or "Help, I'm being kidnapped."
Officers said that alerts bystanders that this isn't just a temper tantrum or fight.
