Police are urging residents to consider their own personal safety as officers investigate three similar reports of women being approached by three men in a car in Thanet.
Officers are working to determine whether they are linked, based on the similarities reported by the victims in each incident.
In all reports, women or teenage girls have reported having seen what is believed to be three men travelling in a brown car which stops nearby before one of the men approaches them.
The victims have described some of the men as having dark hair and speaking with foreign accents.
On August 13 three men are reported to have tried to drag a 13-year-old girl into their vehicle. It happened just off Cecil Square in Margate at around 3pm.
The girl’s mum, Ramsgate nurse Kirstie McCann, arrived to pick her daughter up and saw the incident. The men drove off after she starting shouting at them. The men were described as being in a mud brown Citroen. (Police reference 46/160966/19)
Second report in Birchington
A second report has been made of a 16-year-old girl being approached in Birchington just a week later on August 20.
In a warning post the girl’s mother said: “My 16 year old daughter was just on her way home from work, walking along Borrow Road /Park Avenue area and was approached by a brown car with three Eastern European men. The car stopped and one of them approached her. She luckily ran away, phoned me, and was near enough for me to meet her. She’s very shaken. Please be vigilant.”
The incident happened at 10pm in Park Lane.The girl ran away from the area without further issue. (Police reference 46/160993/19).
Third report in Ramsgate
A third incident is reported to have taken place on August 21 between 7.45pm and 8pm, at the junction of an alley leading to Manston Road and Helvellyn Avenue, Ramsgate. A woman called police to report she had been grabbed by a man in a car but was able to free herself and run away. (Police reference 46/161554/19).
Extra patrols
Officers are carrying out patrols and enquiries in the affected areas and people are asked to pay extra attention regarding their own safety, such as avoid walking alone and ensure you choose well-lit roads.
Always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you and avoid distractions such as looking at your mobile phone or listening to music on headphones.
People with information regarding any of the three reports are asked to call Kent Police on 01843 222289 quoting the relevant reference number.
Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111 or using the anonymous online form at Crimestoppers-uk.org
Too much of this sort of thing going on there must be cctv in the area and surrounding area’s unfortunately with so much concentration on traffic cameras, CCTV the police don’t seem to watch drivers like they used to in my opinion we are losing too much for the sake of Technology
I hope the police are able to catch whoever is responsible for the terrorising of our young girls and families. It’s not just the girls it’s there parents and siblings who worry and fret over it. Then you have girls frightened to walk around to the shops because they don’t want to be damaged by scum. So I know they have caught lots of criminal this recently and they are under manned hoping that they catch them quickly.
I know it’s very had at the time but if even a partial reg number would help everyone to look out for this car.
The police stated they have identified the car with number plate details from CCTV after the first incident, so why haven’t they apprehended these males before further attempts took place. Is this because the car is either not registered or has foreign plates on it?
Maybe they could issue this registration number to the local press so we can be vigilant and look out for it!
Identifying a car by reg plates is great if they are not cloned and has a registered owner so many cars are not taxed, insured, cloned plates or even owend they will slip up I hope its not too late for anyone. I said to my girls both anyone try to touch them they kick him in the nuts and as he bends over he gets another as quick as she can then run. She has kicked a boy who got a bit to close and wanted what she was not giving he learnt quickly.
The local plods cannot be trying very hard to find these guys-how many brown cars are there riding around Thanet being driven by non Brits? Brown isn’t even in the top ten most popular UK car colours & how many brown cars do you see driving around the area? Not many.
CCTV everywhere-assuming it is working of course & all three incidents happened after 5.30 P.M.-so it would seem likely that these individuals are doing something else during the daytime-working in car-washes or in the fields picking produce would be the most likely places to look at. Guess they will not be captured until they eventually succeed in abducting a woman & rape/kill her so they can get DNA.
This news should be all over local Facebook groups.
Birchington, Westgate, Margate pages, running clubs, cycle clubs, walking clubs, as many groups as poss. This car needs to be spotted asap.
This is very serious. Has this been reported on local radio? The more eyes looking for the car, the better chance of finding it, surely?
This needs to be put on our local radio station & I agree these filthy minded men need to be caught.The public have to be aware & stuck together before it gets out of hand.
Academy FM do their news reports from The Isle of Thanet News so it will be/has been on the radio
Thanks for the heads up on this Kathy.