Cops released a man suspected of stalking an 8-year-old girl and attempting to abduct her 12-year-old brother in Crown Heights after the victims recanted their story on Monday evening.
The suspect turned himself in for questioning at a Canarsie police station earlier that day, about a day after police asked for public assistance in identifying him.
The girl told cops she first saw the man she accused of stalking her on Friday at 8:24 am on Eastern Parkway near Brooklyn Avenue, where she said he lurked behind parked cars as he followed her to a nearby school-bus stop. But she said the sight of other parents the scared him off, according to police.
That afternoon, the accusers alleged the man flagged down the boy’s school bus at 1:30 pm and tried to persuade a chaperone on board to give him the child, according to a report. The woman, who noted the man’s name was not on an approved list of guardians, then threatened to call the police, and he fled, police said.
The girl said she spotted the man again later that day outside her Crown Heights home at around 7 pm, where she said he was bizarrely taking pictures of her inside of her house, according to police. Authorities said the man asked her where she sleeps and who lives with her before fleeing after she refused to answer.
Her brother said he spotted the suspect a fourth and final time on Saturday outside his home at 11:15 am, when he approached the boy with questions about his parents and where he slept. But the kid said he rushed inside, and the man fled in a white four-door sedan, cops said.
The victims said the man left a reminder of his obsession in the mailbox, where the youngsters’ parents found a letter at around 5 pm that read, “Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute.”
