Baddow Hall Junior School has warned parents of an incident close to the school on Thursday 3rd September.
“Please be aware that an incident occurred yesterday at the park in New Road whereby a child was approached by 4 men in a white Mercedes with a foreign number plate and blacked out windows. The child was walking in front of their parent and was asked to get into the car, at which point Mum shouted at them and they drove off.
“This incident has been reported to the police.
“Take care and be aware.”
Harriet from the Essex Chronicle was in contact with us to confirm the story. She has since spoken to the police and they confirmed that a report was made on Thursday evening. The time of the incident was about 11.40am,
However, there is one important difference in the statement made by the police:
“It was reported that around 11.40 am that day a white vehicle was seen driving slowly in the area before pulling up alongside two children, the car then drove away. Four men were seen in the car, two were black and two white. No words were exchanged and no threats made towards the children.”
So the school’s message that they asked the child to get in may not be entirely correct. Another local witness saw the car and it appeared that they may have simply been lost – they had also pulled up on Molrams Lane, outside Baddow Lawn Tennis Club, and there were no other pedestrians around at the time.
Hopefully this was a false alert.
Source: Baddow Hall Newsletter – 4th September 2015