Weymouth kidnap scare: Man chases young cyclist (From Dorset Echo)

Weymouth kidnap scare: Man chases young cyclist

10:00am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

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A TEN-YEAR-OLD boy feared he was going to be kidnapped when a man chased him down the road and stole his bike.

George Staple thought he and his schoolfriend were being chased by a paedophile when the thief got out of a car in Lanehouse Rocks Road in Weymouth and started asking questions.

Police are appealing for a woman driver who stopped to let George and his friend cross the road to get away before the man gave chase and wrestled the bike from the St Andrew’s School pupil.

Little George was walking down the hill towards the Esso garage and Tesco Express store when the car stopped.

He said: “I was walking back from the park when the car stopped and the man got out.

“He was asking where I got the bike from but a woman stopped to let us cross.

“I did not say anything and carried on across the road.

“But he came and grabbed my back wheel and tried to get the bike off me so I let go.

“It was scary. I ran back to my dad.”

George said he looked back to see the man put his bike into the car.

George’s dad Jonathan Staple, 33 was decorating their new home in nearby Fraser Avenue when his son came running back to him.

Mr Staple, 33, said: “It was awful.

“He was distraught and in tears and I was fuming.”

Mr Staple drove back to Lanehouse Rocks Road with his son but the man had gone.

He said George had first feared it might have been a paedophile after him.

Mr Staple added: “They thought he looked suspicious and dodgy.

“He said he looked like a paedophile and he was scared that it was a paedophile.

“George thought he was going to grab him.

“Whoever did this needs to know they’ve not got away with it.”

Mr Staple and his son were visiting their new house in Fraser Avenue in preparation for moving from their current home in Nightingale Drive.

He added: “You can see it has affected George because when we went past again he said ‘that’s where it happened.’ “So I said ‘don’t worry about it he’s not going to get you’ and tried to put him at ease.”