Wyoming police step up warnings about child enticement attempts

CINCINNATI - Wyoming police are stepping up their warnings about child enticements and attempted abductions a week after a man tried to lure a young girl to his vehicle as she walked to the Hilltop School on Oliver Road. We first reported the enticement incident late last week.

Now, officers have posted a notice on the Wyoming city website with a complete description about the incident and urging parents to talk to their children about stranger dangers and keeping themselves safe.

Investigators say they are still looking for a man with a "shiny red pick-up truck" that the girl described as approaching her last Thursday morning around 8:15 a.m. when she was walking past Reily Road and Hickory Hill Lane to school.

"This is a serious incident. We would want the children in the community to know the right thing to do when something like this happens. We certainly don't want kids to approach a vehicle with a stranger in it, someone they don't know," said Lt. Rusty Herzog of the Wyoming Police Department.

Wyoming parents who have heard about the incident through letters from school, say they are taking it very seriously and have renewed their warnings to their children.

"I would be anxious about this. This is something I don't think about because I want them to be independent and I want them to walk to school. I want them to do all of that, and I'll still encourage them to do all of that, with safety in mind," said Radhika Iyer, a Wyoming mother of two.

Laurie White, a parent with children in the Wyoming schools, says the community is helping look out for others.

"It's very upsetting but I think the nice thing about this community here is that people are very close knit. We watch out for each other. The whole community is like a neighborhood watch and we just have to be even more cautious," White said.

Meanwhile, families in some Eastside Cincinnati communities are also on guard, after a series of child enticement incidents around the Amity Elementary School of East Galbraith Road in Deer Park.

Two sisters, 10 and 11 years old, reported seeing a man trying to coax them into his car on three separate occasions between their home and their school.

James Lohman, 18, of Sycamore Township is now under arrest. He is charged with six counts of criminal child enticement. He is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center under a $600,000 bond.