Neighbour scared man from luring Winnipeg kids into truck

Winnipeg police are on the lookout after a Kingston Row area resident deterred asuspicious man fromluringtwo kids into his truck Thursday.

Police said the man called two girls over to his pickup truck, showed them a cat and asked them to come with him to find the cat's home Thursday night.

The girls, sisters age7 and 10 years old, were playing in Kingston Park in the 300 block ofKingston Crescentwhen the man drove up around 7:15 p.m.

Not long after the man began speaking withthe kids,Dan Donahue, who lives on Kingston Crescent, intervened.

Donahue thought something was amiss about the situation, so he approaced the man and started asking him what he was doing. That's when the man became nervous.

"His demeanour shifted somewhatafter I arrived," said Donahue. "I could tell that as Ibegan asking question he felt it was probably time to leave the scene."

The man fled the scene and Donahue came away from the encounter feeling rattled.

"Very surprising. I had just mentioned to neighbours that, Imean, this is a fairly quiet area, it can happen anywhere," said Donahue. "But you think with all this attention being paid to this type of thing, you think people would think twice about attempting it."

Donahueand some of his neighbours thenfiled a police report.

The man is described as 40 years old with a medium build and brown hair. Police report he was clean shaven and wearing a dark jacket.

The man is said to have been driving a red compact two-door pickup truck with a Winnipeg Fire Fighters specialtylicence plate.

Anyone with information about his identity is asked to call investigators at 204-986-2857 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.