No Arrest in Reported Attempted Abduction at Stratford School

A man who was reported to have attempted to lure a Stratford elementary school student into his van Friday morning will not face any criminal charges, police said Monday.

“Officers were able to make contact with the operator,” Stratford police spokesman Lt. Frank Eannotti said in a statement after a phone inquiry with Stratford Patch.

“Investigation determined that no probable cause existed for an arrest,” he said. “No charges were filed in the incident.”

Police said they were called to Barnum Avenue near Franklin Elementary School before the start of school on Friday.

Officers were responding to a report that an unknown black male driving a U-Haul attempted to coax an elementary school student into his van, police said.

The student reportedly told school authorities who then alerted police.

“This ended up not panning out into a criminal case,” Eannotti said.

He added, “The public message still stands that parents should always make their children aware of the dangers of speaking with strangers or unknown persons.”

The incident outside Franklin Elementary School came about a week after a reported suspicious package near Stratford High School forced the school to go into "stay put" mode.

The package, which also shut down a stretch of Main Street and temporarily closed local businesses, was determined to be an overturned trash can, which was the initial complaint -- that an unknown male had pulled his car over and placed a garbage can in the middle of the roadway, upside down.

After the scene was cleared, police said in a statement, "The nature of these calls and recent events dictate that we take complaints such as these seriously and the Stratford police continue to encourage all say something if they see something."