JUPITER FARMS, Fla. -- An 11-year-old girl in Jupiter Farms says she was approached by a stranger in a van on her walk home from her bus stop.
That girl, Aliyah Hanson, says this happened Monday afternoon, shortly after she stepped off the bus. She was only a couple streets away from her home.
"When I got off the bus, there was a white van and then I started getting scared," Aliyah said.
Aliyah described to deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that the van passed her, then turned around in a driveway, slowed down and pulled up to her.
"He was like, 'Do you need a ride home?' I was like 'no'. He was like 'Are you sure?' (I said), 'Yes, I'm sure I don't need a ride home,'" Aliyah described.
But, she says the man kept asking her.
She walked away quickly, and when she knew he couldn't see where she was walking, she said she ran to her home.
"I was like really scared. I didn't know what to do. I was so scared," Aliyah said.
Her mother, Patty Hanson, says her daughter did just what she would have wanted her to do.
"When she told me that somebody had stopped her and asked if she wanted a ride home, I just immediately was sick to my stomach," Hanson said.
Hanson is worried the driver of the white van, with dark tinted windows, may have had bad intentions.
"Nowadays you don't ask a child if they need a ride home… it wasn't raining out, it wasn't pouring, she wasn't crying," Hanson described.
Now, detectives are working the case. A spokesperson with the sheriff's office says residents in that area should remain watchful for anything suspicious.
Detectives may re-interview Aliyah to see if they can get a better driver description and possibly put together a composite sketch.
