A near miss Carterton kidnapping has terrified the parents of a Masterton girl who escaped being snatched in another attempt police say is similar.
Masterton police sergeant Carolyn Watson said yesterday there are similarities between the Carterton incident on Wednesday afternoon involving a man in a white car approaching a girl, 11, another similar approach involving children in the town last year, and the attempted abduction in February of the Masterton girl.
The mother of the girl, 13, who declined to be named, said she now refuses to let her daughter go out alone and has demanded school authorities allow her to carry a cell phone at all times.
"This guy has to be stopped before a child does gets in his car and is never seen again. He needs to be caught and strung up. Let me at him."
The father of the girl yesterday urged Wairarapa parents to be more vigilant with their young children and said witnesses to any similar incidents, and other possible victims, must contact police.
"I want him caught. If it's the same guy, he's just getting away with it again and again and sooner or later he's going to be successful," he said.
Mrs Watson said police are calling for witnesses to the latest incident to come forward and for any other similar incidents, even going back several months, which other near miss victims may have just "shrugged off".
Mrs Watson said police interviewed the 11-year-old girl last night and although similarities are acknowledged between the three incidents "the investigation is progressing and correlations are still being made".
In the Masterton incident the girl was returning from a nearby dairy at about 6pm on a Sunday evening in February when a man in his 20s with tidy brown hair and driving a white car stopped and claimed there was an emergency at the girl's home and her mother had sent him to her.
The girl, who is petite and often mistaken as being younger, ran from him and started crying before a passerby came to her rescue and took her home.
In Carterton on Wednesday the young girl was told her mother "was in trouble" and "to come with me".
Mrs Watson said the girl did not know the man and his vehicle was white and in good condition.
The girl immediately ran to her nearby home and told her mother.
Mrs Watson said the exact location of the latest incident was discussed with the girl last night and detectives are still pinpointing "definite lines of inquiry".
"We are not in a position to comment on whether the locations are significant at this stage.
"We're treating this very seriously. We don't know if they're linked but they are similar in nature."
Man tries to lure girl into vehicle
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