Mother Recalls Her Encounter With Suspicious Blue Minivan

After the Haverford-Havertown Patch reported on Thursday of a woman who saw a suspicious blue minivan that after she confronted the driver, she gives a detailed account of what she experienced.

According to a incident report, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at around 3:30 p.m. the woman was walking with her three children along the 500 block of Furlong Avenue towards Steel Road when an older blue minivan of unknown make and model stopped near her 4-year-old son.

“The front of the van was facing towards Manoa Road and the rear passenger door was open (she believed it may have been an automatic door).  She quickly ran to her son and observed a white male, approximately mid forties with a medium build, ‘medium’ colored hair (no further description), seated in the driver's seat.  She did not observe anyone else in the vehicle,” the incident report stated.

The Havertown woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told Patch in a phone interview on Thursday afternoon that she was not sure if it was an innocent incident or not, but the situation made her uneasy.

She said that she originally thought the minivan was going to pull into a driveway in front of her son, but when it instead pulled up next to him she became alarmed.

“When the back passenger side door slid open, my feet did not hit the ground when I ran to my son,” she said, adding that her young son was “five driveways ahead of me” during their walk.

“I’m not sure if the van even saw me or not,” she said, hinting that if the person was going to kidnap her son that it was a bold move. 

When she came up to her son and saw the driver, she asked if everything was fine, which he said it was and he drove off, she recalled.

While her 4-year-old son did not realize what had happened, it was her 6-year-old daughter who was affected by the situation more so, as she had a bad dream that night, the Havertown mother said.

After the incident, she said she played a “fun game” about what her children should do if they encounter a stranger. The mother wanted her children to remember how to protect themselves in case of danger, but she wanted to do it in a way as to not scare them.

A PDF safety tip sheet for parents and children about how to deal with strangers accompanies this article.