Police say report suspicious events soon after
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EVANSTON — Rumors have been circulating in Evanston over the past two to three weeks regarding multiple attempted abductions of women from local gas stations. Evanston Police Department Lt. Ken Pearson said, however, that only one possible incident had been reported to their office, and that report came in nearly two weeks after the event reportedly occurred.
Pearson said officers had heard rumors about a possible attempted abduction that occurred at Kik’s Chevron in mid-April; however, the woman involved did not contact police and no report was made until officers interviewed her after tales of the incident reached law enforcement. The woman involved said she was at Kik’s Chevron one morning when a Hispanic-appearing man approached her after he got off a Greyhound bus. She said he was masked and began speaking to her in Spanish as he approached.
She told officers he made her uncomfortable as he got closer, so she got into her vehicle, at which time she said two other men began trying to open her car doors. She said another woman witnessed the event and ran over to check on her well-being.
Although the woman reportedly told several coworkers and others about the experience, she did not contact police and did not speak with them until they sought her out a couple of weeks later. When asked why she did not contact police right away, she reportedly said she was so shaken from the incident she didn’t know what to do. There is no video from the area in question for officers to review.
Pearson said that, though rumors have spread about other similar incidents, nobody has reported such incidents to law enforcement. He said there was one report of a woman calling about her car being stolen; however, that turned out to be a false alarm and the woman had simply forgotten where she parked her vehicle.
Pearson said there is currently no reason to believe there have been multiple attempted abductions in the area and that rumors have simply taken off based on the one event. He did, however, encourage people to please contact police promptly to report any suspicious incidents.
