Girl snatched while selling lemons
A four-year-old girl was selling lemons outside her Hamilton home when she was abducted by a man police are still hunting.
It’s understood the girl’s older sister was also manning the stand at the end of their driveway and ran to alert their mother, who chased after the abductor’s car.
Shortly after, the abductor stopped and the girl was pushed out. She’s now home and unharmed.
Police are extremely concerned by the incident, which unfolded in a leafy street in the suburb of Riverlea around 4pm on Friday.
A man driving a white hatchback stopped as the two girls manned their McCracken Avenue stand, police said.
The younger girl was then somehow coaxed or pulled into the white hatchback by the male driver, Hamilton CIB Detective Rhiannon Jones said.
He drove off with her in the vehicle, heading down McCracken towards the Hillcrest New World.
Jones confirmed that the older girl alerted their mother, who came out on to the footpath and chased the vehicle down the street.
Towards the New World end of the suburban street, the man stopped the car and the fouryear-old girl was pushed out.
The man was not believed to be known to the family in any way.
‘‘This is extremely concerning,’’ Jones said.
‘‘If anyone was around the area at the time, contact the police.
‘‘You don’t know how valuable that information is until you have it.’’
Police are working with the family, who are extremely upset by the incident, she said.
The car was described as being a white four-door hatchback.
It has then travelled from McCracken Avenue on to Cambridge Road south of the Burger King roundabout at Hillcrest.
Jones said police would like to hear from anyone who has private CCTV cameras operating on their homes around the Cambridge Road area.
Although significant, this type of incident is ‘‘fortunately a rare occurrence’’ in Hamilton, Waikato police’s Hamilton City Area Commander, Inspector Freda Grace, said.
‘‘Any incident with this type of circumstances is concerning. We will be doing everything we can to resolve this. We want everyone in the community to feel safe.’’
Police had not received any other reports of a similar nature, she said.
‘‘Fortunately, the girl is OK,’’ she said.
As the population expands and communities change, it becomes harder to know who is moving in and around neighbourhoods, Grace said.
‘‘Communities are not what they were ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. It’s about having that next level of attention and being a bit more vigilant.
‘‘We urge everyone to get to know who your neighbours are and who’s coming and going in the neighbourhood.’’
Joining a Neighbourhood Support or community patrol group gives people a vested interest in the communities they live in, she said.
Although there was no indication where the abductor was from, Grace said the hatchback may have piqued Riverlea residents’ interest if they recognised it as unfamiliar.
Anyone in McCracken Avenue or the wider Riverlea and Hillcrest areas around the time of this incident who may have witnessed something should contact police. If you can help, please call Hamilton Central Police Station on 07 858 6200.