Sources: Reported Queens Abduction Attempt Was Innocent Encounter With Family Friend
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- What was described as an attempted abduction of a 9-year-old girl near a school in Queens Friday turned out to be an innocent encounter with a family friend, police sources said.
Around 8 a.m. Friday, the girl was walking down Seventh Avenue in College Point, Queens, when police initially reported a man took her and told her they had to look for her mother.
The man walked up to her and said "come with me, we have to go look for your mother," police said.
The girl ran into the school and told administrators, who called 911.
But while the man was initially reported to be a stranger, police sources later said he was a family friend that the girl has known for many years. But the man had grown a beard recently and the girl did not recognize him when he came up, sources said.
The man is friends with the girl's mother, and he had just dropped his own children off at the school, sources said.
The man's children and the little girl had gone to the same daycare center together when they were younger, and the man was legitimately looking for the child's mother who had dropped the child off at school, sources said.
Police said no crime was committed and have closed the case, sources said.