A Sydney mother is warning others to watch their children closely after a mysterious man approached her three-year-old daughter in a park on Tuesday evening.
NSW Police say the toddler was playing in Pioneers Memorial Park in Leichhardt, in Sydney’s inner west, when a man approached and spoke to her.
“This Indian looking man came up and started talking to my child, and my child turned around and she pointed to me and next thing, he just turned around walking in the other direction,” the girl’s shaken mum told the Seven Network on Wednesday.
“I ran over and just basically grabbed my child back, pushed him and his reply to me was he thought she was lost.”
She says the man should hand himself in “and get what’s coming to you – you don’t deserve to live.”
The same man could be behind another attempted abduction in Sydney on Saturday morning.
A five-year-old girl was approached in Glebe and ran off after the girl’s screams alerted her mother, police say.
In both cases, the males were described as being of Indian appearance, about 170 centimetres tall and wearing a t-shirt and tracksuit pants.
Just last week, a man picked up a 15-month-old toddler in Sydney’s south-west and began walking away when his mother – who had been nearby watching her son – screamed and ran to save him. The man was described as being mid-40s and of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance.
Detective Inspector Gavin Beck told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday the police will explore any possible link.
“It’s just an example of parents being alert of what’s appearing around them and, in this case, that’s what the parents have been doing,” he said.
