Fear reigns as child abductor stalks suburban streets

Jan White and daughter Scryce. Photo / Jason Dorday

Let the mothers at him.

That's what Red Beach mum Chris Nader wants if a man alleged to be trying to abduct North Shore children is caught.

Nader is upset, and her 8-year-old daughter terrified, after police said on Thursday two 13-year-old girls had been approached by a man in nearby Moffat St.

The incidents come after a 9-year-old girl was offered a lift in a white two-door vehicle by a man fitting a similar description outside Red Beach School, and a 5-year-old boy was grabbed by a man with a limp in Greenhithe two days earlier. The boy managed to get away.

Police don't yet know if the incidents are linked, but Nader thinks they are.

"Let the mothers at him, we'll add to his limp. And he'll be missing a few pieces of his anatomy at the end of it too," she said.

In Moffatt St, grandmother Jan White was stunned one of the attempted abductions had occurred in her street.

"It's not nice at all, I'm not sure why people think they have a right to do this. We will be keeping an eye out."

She feared for her grandchildren, a boy and girl aged 4 and 8 who live in Orewa.

The man thought to be involved in the Greenhithe incident is described as Caucasian, aged in his 40s, with curly brown hair and a possible limp. The vehicles used in Red Beach have been described differently, but in both cases the man was aged in his 40s with wavy hair.

Neighbour Lim Te was scared for her 5-year-old nephew and 11-year-old daughter. Her nephew is at Red Beach School, where teachers keep the youngest pupils in class until parents collect them.

But she had told her daughter, a pupil at Orewa College, not to get into any car but their own.

North Shore police sergeant Brian Swanson said no further incidents had been reported.