Published Friday, October 18, 2002
by man
in mask
in Ohio, police say
A 21-year-old Jamestown woman and her 17-month-old son were nearly kidnapped Wednesday afternoon as they were traveling through Greene Township, police said.
Police gave the following account:
The woman was eastbound on state Route 58 near Murphy Road at 2 p.m. when her car was cut off by a white car -- possibly a Chevrolet Cavalier with an unknown Ohio registration -- that stopped in front of it.
A white man wearing a ski mask got out of his car and into the rear passenger side of the woman's car. The man demanded the woman drive on several back roads and eventually they ended up on Slater Road in Williamsfield, Ohio.
Once there, the man got out of the woman's car and started to walk toward the front of the car but slipped. The woman threw her purse at the man, got into her car and drove to the first house she could find where she called the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Office.
A dog was used to track the man for about half a mile before police determined he had been picked up by another vehicle.
The woman told police the man was 5 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall, had a thin build and had a mobile phone with him.