Earlier this week, a man on Staten Island attempted to kidnap a second child in two weeks, sending police on a manhunt to find him. A Hispanic man, bald, around 40 to 50 years old and driving a white car, tried to use candy to lure a 10-year-old boy into his car on May 16 outside a Duane Reade; the boy ran home and told his parents. Then on Tuesday, he tried to grab a 14-year-old girl walking home from school, near Clove Road and Forest Avenue. She managed to get away, and helped the police develop a sketch of the would-be kidnapper.
The 14-year-old told the Daily News she managed to get away by kicking him in the groin.
Construction workers across the street either didn't hear her over their jackhammer or thought she was fooling around and didn't come to her aid, she said. Then she remembered a safety tip she was taught in second grade.
"I kicked him in his private area," the plucky teen told The News. "It just came into my head."
Apparently the man followed her for a block, but fled when he saw her go into her school. The girl and her family moved from Pennsylvania to Staten Island; she said, "I'm from the suburbs, and stuff like that didn't happen. When that happened to me, I hated New York. But now I've calmed down."
And the other week, an 11-year-old managed to fight off a man who grabbed her in her Brooklyn apartment building.
