A Ramsgate mum is warning youngsters, and parents, to be on their guard after three men tried to drag her 13-year-old daughter into their car.
Molly-Rose Smith was waiting in Union Crescent for her mum Kirstie McCann to pick her up on August 13 when she was approached by the men in a brown Citroen. One asked if she was ‘for sale.’
The youngster, who turns 14 in October, told them to go away and tried to walk away around the rear of the car but the backseat passenger got out and started to yank her into the vehicle.
It was at that point that her mum drove into the road.
Kirstie said: “As I came around the corner I saw her. She was screaming. I started screaming at them out of my window and he turned around, got in the car and they drove off.
“I had my four-year-old daughter in the car with me otherwise I’d have jumped out right there. Molly got in our car and she was terrified and crying.
“I just couldn’t believe it. You hear about things like this happening but you don’t think it will be your child. I worry at night but this was 3pm and they literally didn’t care.”
Kirstie said she attempted to follow the car which headed past Poundstretchers and went towards town.
The 35-year-old nurse reported the incident to police.
She said: “They were checking CCTV from the area from around 12pm. The car is distinctive because it is mud brown so there aren’t many that colour.”
Kirstie says her daughter thinks the three men were Eastern European. The driver wore a check shirt, the back seat passenger had a white T shirt on.
She added: “Molly is ok now but it’s scary.”
A Kent Police spokesman said: “Police are investigating following a report that a man tried to make a teenager get in his car.
“The incident is reported to have happened off Cecil Square, Margate on Tuesday, 13 August.”
It is understood police have now identified the car from the CCTV footage and have number plate details.
Anyone with information can call police on 101 quoting reference 13-1298
