An elderly man from Pennsylvania was arrested on Thursday after he reportedly tried to entice a boy into his vehicle with sweets last month.
According to a local Fox network, the guy was detained last week after he tried to get a child he met at a Wawa convenience store in New Jersey into his car by promising to give him candy.
Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said that Thomas Cannon, a citizen of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, had been charged with jeopardizing the welfare of a child. This is a felony of the third degree, punishable by a maximum of five years in jail if convicted.
Late May at Wawa, the 79-year-old was allegedly seen grabbing the seven-year-old’s arm after handing the child some candy.
Fox News reports that the boy got away from Cannon and rushed to his mom, who had gone to the restroom at the shop at the time.
Cannon is seen leaving the shop before the child’s family found out about the incident, as captured by surveillance cameras. He was last seen driving a white Toyota 4-Runner.
According to a child safety website, in the United States, a kid is abducted or goes missing every 40 seconds on average. The FBI believes that 85–90% of the 840,000 children that go missing each year are indeed youngsters. Most cases of missing or kidnapped children are found within hours. However, there are also numerous cases in which the child does not return home.
Warning messages are swiftly and extensively sent via the America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response Alert (AMBER) system, a cooperation of broadcasters, mobile phone providers, state transportation agencies, and local police to assist and identify missing children.
Amber Hagerman, 9, was abducted and killed in Arlington, Texas, and AMBER was made in her memory. Nearly 900 kids were saved thanks to AMBER warnings, proving that this system is a valuable instrument in the fight against child abduction.
