‘I just ran:’ Layton Police investigating report of attempted kidnapping
Sep 8, 2022, 10:50 PM | Updated: Sep 9, 2022, 9:25 am
LAYTON, Utah – Police officers are keeping a close eye on elementary schools in Layton after a boy reported that a man tried to lure him into his SUV on Wednesday afternoon.
“He comes bolting in the house and he’s like, ‘Mom, some guy just tried to talk to me, told me to go with him,’” Felicia Hunt, the boy’s mother said.
Hunt said the encounter happened around 4 p.m. Wednesday when her son, Isaiah, went to take the dog on a walk in their neighborhood in the south end of Layton.
“I was walking my dog and I turned over to give her some water and he just came from behind me and started talking right here,” the 11-year-old said.
Isaiah said the man in the black SUV asked him a question.
“It was ‘Do you want see my house my dad built or a house my dad was building?’ It was one of those,” Isaiah said.
Isaiah said he found the request “weird” and that he wanted to get home and tell his mom what happened.
“So I just ran,” he said.
Once Hunt learned what happened to her son, she quickly ran outside to look for the SUV and called police.
“100% he probably would have tried to take Isaiah,” she said. “Without a doubt in my mind. I really feel like he was trying to coerce him.”
“It’s certainly suspicious,” said Lt. Travis Lyman with the Layton Police Department.
Lyman said all officers in the city have been notified of the incident and are on the lookout for a dark SUV with an LA Dodgers sticker in the rear window.
“The suspect description is quite vague: older white male with sunglasses and a hat,” Lyman said.
Lyman said Isaiah did the right thing and that other parents should also teach their kids to run away in a similar encounter and find somewhere or someone safe.
“Don’t feel like they need to stay and engage with somebody just because it’s a grownup or because it’s the polite thing to do,” Lyman said.
Hunt wonders what happened to her son is connected to an attempted abduction in North Ogden in late August. But police in Layton and in North Ogden said they don’t think the cases are related because the vehicle descriptions and suspect descriptions are different.
Search underway for man who tried to kidnap little girl leaving school in N. Ogden
“We don’t think it’s connected,” Lyman told KSL-TV.
On Friday, a Layton officer is going to re-canvass the neighborhood, conduct interviews and look for any doorbell camera footage, Lyman said.
