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2 Men Try to Abduct 10-Year-Old Girl Near Fort Greene School, Police Say

By Janet Upadhye | March 13, 2015 2:14pm
 A 10-year-old girl was approached by two men and asked to get in their car near a school in Fort Greene, police said.
A 10-year-old girl was approached by two men and asked to get in their car near a school in Fort Greene, police said.
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DNAinfo/Janet Upadhye; NYPD

BROOKLYN — A pair of men tried to lure a 10-year-old girl into their car near a school in Fort Greene, police said.

The girl, a P.S. 20 student, was walking near Fort Greene Park on Mon., March 9, around 4 p.m. when two men driving a BMW SUV pulled over and asked her to get into thei vehicle, police said.

The girl, who was at the corner of Myrtle and North Portland avenues, ran away and the suspects drove off, police said.

The girl was unharmed, the NYPD said.

The incident prompted the principal of the Arts and Letters Academy, which shares a building with P.S. 20, to send an email warning parents about the event.

"In order to keep our students safe, we urge you to discuss with your children some safety guidelines regarding traveling to and from school," Principal John O’Reilly wrote.

O’Reilly noted that children should travel in groups, be aware of their surroundings, walk in the middle of the sidewalk and not near the curb, and not use any shortcuts through vacant lots or desolate areas.

"If your child encounters a situation in which your child is fearful about his or her safety, your child should immediately run in the opposite direction and yell for help to alert bystanders," he concluded.

This is at least the second incident of students being approached by strangers near a Brooklyn school this month.

Police arrested a man on March 3 after he approached two students near the P.S. 9 campus in Prospect Heights and later grabbed the chest of a female student of Brooklyn East Collegiate, which shares a building with P.S. 9. The children escaped the man in both incidents.

The suspects in the Fort Greene incident are described as two 30-year-old males driving a BMW X3 SUV.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.