Marlborough Mesa

Below is an account in her own words as to what happened to her on 3-30-11. (Her dad found out later that PD could not hold him for this incident - because the stranger never placed his hands on her ... BUT they could sure keep him in jail for the other things they found!)  She writes:

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"Dear Alma,

After school Wednesday I was walking home. At about 3:25 I turned onto Emerson from Guadalupe. As I was trying to turn a white male with short black hair and a short black beard pulled up in a black hummer with very dark tinted windows. He had his passenger window rolled down and was smoking a cigarette. He was trying to talk to me and motioned for me to come up to the car. I was frozen in fear. I started to back up and was telling him YOU NEED TO GO and waving my hands. He slowly pulled off and he was staring at me in his mirror. He continued to drive down the street slow. I was a few yards behind him and I started to call my dad. He was driving in the direction of our house and I thought my dad would get his license plate. There was a group of boys walking a couple houses in front of me also. He stopped right before our street, Pecos, and parked. My dad's phone was still ringing and I was walking right behind the boys now. We were still a couple houses behind the hummer. He pulled off and drove down my street, my dad answered and knew something was wrong. I told my dad to go outside and look for a black hummer. He saw him drive down our street, and got in his truck and followed him. A couple minutes later I got home. My dad was out following him drive. He was driving slow in the neighborhood and then to Safeway. The man walked into Safeway and my dad called the cops. The man stayed in Safeway and didn't come out until the cops had hid themselves. He then walked out and they arrested him. He had many warrants for his arrest, drugs, stolen credit cards, bolt cutters and more. And he was from phoenix. He was driving around in mesa when a huge high school just got out and kids are walking home, why? I think he was looking for teenage girls. When the police called and told us what he had in his car my stomach sank, I feel extremely blessed that I wasn't kidnapped. These kinds of people should be locked up for life. Today my life has forever been changed. I will never walk home again, I will never go outside alone again. My little brother isn't allowed to play outside again, I cant even walk my dogs anymore. I don't feel safe to walk outside when it is dark, I don't even feel safe to go to school. I want to move. I know that mean people are everywhere but I did not think in this area. I have lost my freedom. If I'm not in my own house I don't feel safe. All because this stupid man. I saved a young girl's life by telling someone that this man was scaring me, whether it was my own I'm not sure. I could have not said anything and he might have abducted a girl and killed her down the street from me. I know what this man was thinking and I don't know if I'll ever be able to trust men now. This man needs to be in jail for a very long time.

Thank you,

The 15-year old"

UPDATE from PD:

They feel that the young teen was definitely being stalked. The man asked for his attorney very quickly. He changed his story 3x’s during the interview. He will definitely be in jail for awhile! They seized his Hummer. They found stolen goods that were linked to a Scottsdale robbery … and many other things that are mentioned above. He is a 39 year old white male.

And one more thing they said: This family did everything RIGHT! And, the outcome was right. PD said it was a good thing the girl called her dad quickly and he was able to act quickly. He said it would have been better in one respect if they had gotten him for attempted kidnapping but the bad part of that scenario is that if he had touched her – worse things could have happened.

This was sent from one of our neighbors to our Councilman:

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Dear Councilmember Kavanaugh:

I hope you are aware of recent events in our Marlborough Mesa neighborhood, specifically two abduction attempts by adults against children. Needless to say, my wife and I are very concerned, with three children walking home from the bus stop every day. I imagine the rest of our neighborhood shares our concerns.

I have always appreciated your support of our neighborhood. I would ask you to direct the Mesa Police Department to send more patrols through our area, especially between 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekday afternoons. I would also suggest you and the MPD reach out to the Chandler Police Department on this problem since criminals don't have jurisdictional issues.

I look forward to helping you and our city in anyway to make Mesa a safer place to live.

This from a neighbor in the 900 block of Pampa:

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"This morning I ask two of my neighbors about the Girls and attempts to kidnap them from our neighborhood and found they knew nothing about it. I also found they knew nothing about the guys roving the neighborhood taking photographs of what was in our neighborhood garages with open garage doors. Am I dreaming this, or are people so wrapped up in their own lives that they do not care enough to keep up with whats going on around them. Or does it take a personal experience to awaken them to reality for more than five minutes?

My wife shocked me by telling me our next door neighbor was unaware of these events when she ask about it yesterday......"