Police looking into reports of suspicious vehicles

Plano police are investigating several incidents where strangers approached school children near Plano ISD campuses and asked them to get into their vehicle.

The three most recent incidents occurred near Bethany Elementary on Jan. 30, as well as Rice and Schimelpfenig middle schools on Feb. 3. No children were harmed in any of the incidents. Reports of suspicious vehicles near schools are not uncommon, said Officer David Tilley of the Plano Police Department.

"We get these suspicious persons calls regularly because we solicit these calls," he said. "We educate our public that they should call the police if they see any suspicious activity or vehicles. We also educate our kids in schools about stranger danger and tell them to run if anyone approaches them and to call 911 when they get home or to a safe place."

The incident near Rice has already been solved, Tilley said. On Feb. 3 at the intersection of Gifford and Stonehaven drives, two teenagers, one white male and one white female with long blonde hair, approached two juveniles and told them to get inside their sports utility vehicle. The juveniles refused and contacted police. Police later located the driver of the vehicle, who admitted to exchanging words with the juveniles as he was driving by. Tilley said no charges will be filed in the case.

Also on Feb. 3, a juvenile female reported she was approached by a white male in his 50s or 60s near Schimelpfenig and asked if she needed a ride. When she refused, the suspect left the area.

Tilley said police do not believe the two incidents that occurred on Friday are related; however, the incident at Bethany may have been related to another incident that occurred earlier in the month.

On Jan. 30, three juveniles walking near Bethany Elementary told police they were approached by a silver Infinity G37 that was occupied by a white male teenager and a black male teenager. The two teenagers asked the juveniles if they wanted some candy, but then drove away after the juveniles fled the scene.

This incident was similar to one that occurred on Jan. 20, when a white male in a silver four-door sedan approached a white female in the 9400 block of Daly Drive. While the man in the Jan. 20 incident was reportedly in his 30s, Tilley said police are looking to see if the incidents may be connected since a similar vehicle was used in each case.

"We don't believe any of the other incidents are related because they occurred in different areas of the city and the descriptions of the suspects were different," Tilley said. "We also don't have any proof the two with the silver sedan are related, but we are looking into it."

While the police are not sure if any of the suspects in these incidents had a malicious intent, Tilley said calling the police was the correct move in all cases.

"This is a different society today than it was 30 years ago," he said. "We don't know what the intent of the people was. We have had cases in the past where the kids made reports and the stories in order to keep themselves out of trouble. We are not saying that is the case here and we always investigate every case. We are hoping this is not something serious, but we are going to treat it that way until we prove otherwise."

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