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RCMP want to educate parents to help prevent child luring

Apr 21, 2016 | 6:30 AM

With recent child luring attempts in North Battleford and in Cando, the Battlefords RCMP want to help parents prevent incidents before they ever happen.

On April 18 at roughly 8 p.m. in North Battleford, a nine-year-old boy was approached by someone described as an older First Nations man driving a large white van with cardboard in a rear window. Earlier on April 11 a similar incident was reported to RCMP in the Cando area, but the vehicle in question at that time was a white pickup truck.

The most common and stereotypical tactics used are offering candy or asking for help with directions or a pet, but Sgt. Neil Tremblay said parents should be speaking with their children about precautions as adults will very rarely look to unknown children for assistance.

“You have to insist on your children if there’s someone approaching you for something in that nature, their first instinct should be to seek an adult they know,” he said. “The adult would be in a better position to determine whether this request from someone they don’t know is legitimate or more nefarious in nature.”

Tremblay also feels those who are attempting to lure children prey on everybody’s, especially young people’s, desire not to come across as being rude.

“You want to be sure that your children understand that it’s okay to say no to someone they don’t know. If it’s a situation where somebody is looking at a genuine child luring situation, they’re (the person attempting the luring) looking to attack people’s need to be polite and a lot of children don’t want to be deemed impolite,” he said.

Tremblay added the quicker an adult and the RCMP are notified after a child luring attempt, the greater the likelihood the suspect can be found.

mkelly@jpbg.ca