'Absolutely concerned': Marlton residents alarmed after man approached teen girl exiting school bus
MARLTON, N.J. - A local teen wants to warn parents and kids about a potentially dangerous situation. She says she walking home from the school bus when a stranger approached her.
"I never had it happen to me before. I didn’t know what was gonna happen," a Marlton teen said to FOX 29's Jennifer Joyce.
Just plain scary. But, the Marlton teenager, whose identity is being withheld, did the right thing when she says a man in a car approached her as she was getting off of the school bus on Friday.
"I had to get my keys out of my book bag and this car was there, parked, and said ‘Are you home alone?’ the teen described. "He went to say something else and I said, ‘Can you please leave me alone,’ and he drove off."
As soon as the teen’s mom became aware, she called police.
"I kinda went into panic mode," the mom said.
The Evesham Township Police Department says it happened in the are of Plymouth Drive and Jefferson Avenue around 2:30 in the afternoon.
"My child gets off on the same corner and my daughter comes this way and that child does that way and it happened when they got off the bus," neighbor Virginia Butler explained. "I’m concerned about that. Absolutely concerned."
Butler says she’s also concerned that the man is lurking in the township. In a neighborhood app, police linked the case to a second suspicious encounter that happened hours later on Glenview Court. Investigators say the man in a white sedan with tinted windows and black rims approached both victims with bizarre comments.
"It was just odd because he was parked on the wrong side of the road, facing the wrong direction and pulled off when she told him to get away," the mom remarked.
Parents in the neighborhood say they plan to keep an extra eye out for anything that appears strange. The incidents come just two weeks before kids are out of school for the summer. The 13-year-old shares her advice with others.
"Don’t really say anything to him. Just kinda tell him to go away and maybe he will," the girl added.
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