Third child enticing reported in N. Idaho

Post Falls police and school officials are on alert again after a man in a blue van pulled up and frightened two girls who fled safely into a neighbor’s home on Wednesday morning. The incident comes after similar occurrences in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene in November. The latest child enticing incident occurred about 8:10 a.m. on Wednesday as two girls, ages 6 and 11, were walking to their school bus stop on Warm Springs Road. The man in the full-sized van drove up to the girls and stopped, looking at them. The girls ran to the neighbor home. The same van was also seen parked outside the girls’ home with the engine running. The man did not make contact with the girls. Police said the incident is troubling and demands extra caution by officers and the public. The van is described as a late 1990s model possibly with Idaho plates. It has a large horizontal gray stripe, front passenger windows only and silver wheels. The man is white with gray hair and a slight beard. Parents are being asked to caution their children about being approached by strangers and to flee if approached and to call 911. A similar incident occurred on Nov. 30 near Mullan Avenue and 15th Street in Coeur d’Alene when a 12-year-old girl said she was followed home from school by a man in a blue van who was described as 40 to 50 years old and unshaven. At one point, the man pulled up and motioned to her to get into the van, but she refused. The girl called her grandmother who met her several blocks away, but the van was no longer seen. In that report, the dark blue van was said to have tinted windows. On Nov. 9, a man in a van was reported to have approached a girl walking home from school at Mullan Avenue and Spokane Street and offered her a ride home. The girl declined and walked to a library. In that incident, the girl described the man as younger with short blond hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information on either case is asked to call Coeur d’Alene police at (208) 769-2320 or Post Falls police at (208) 773-3517.