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Penticton girl approached by man offering beer

A Penticton mom is urging others to talk to kids about what to do when a stranger approaches
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A mother is cautioning other parents after her nine-year-old daughter came home from school earlier this week and said a man in his 20s asked her if “she would like to drink beer at his house.”

The incident happened Jan. 22 around 2:45 p.m. at about the halfway point of the girl’s walk home from school from Queen’s Park Elementary. She lives about four blocks from the school around Nanaimo Avenue and Brunswick Street.

“It’s not someone my daughter recognizes. She’s been going basically the same route for 2.5 years. She used to have walk to school buddies but they moved and it’s been the last couple of months she’s walked by herself. At this point we’ve, of course, decided she won’t be going too and fro without somebody,” mom Kona Sankey said.

Sankey is proud of her daughter for how she responded or rather how she didn’t respond.

“She just kept walking. She didn’t have her phone that day it was sitting on the table. But she just continued on her way home and told us a bit later, ‘oh, by the way this weird thing happened this came and asked me if I wanted to go have a beer at his house.’”

Sankey said she called police and her daughter provided an officer with a description. The man had pale skin, 20 to 25 years old, black hair and a beard. He was wearing bluejeans and a black long sleeve shirt. He was also carrying an empty, black milk crate.

Sankey said police patrolled the area but didn’t find anyone fitting the description.

“One of the things the police said is they wanted a better description…. I just want to encourage other parents to talk to their kids and tell them if someone is approaching them they need to pay attention to what they are wearing, what colour their hair is, tattoos, piercings, notable features, anything that might make them standout.”

The Western News did reach out to police for comment but did not hear back by the time this was posted.