DELAND -- Volusia County Sheriff's deputies are looking into a suspicious incident in which a 13-year-old girl who was outside of her home near DeLand Wednesday afternoon was spooked when a man asked her to get into her truck to help him look for a lost puppy.
"She didn't go with the suspicious man,instead running to a neighbor's house for help," Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said. "The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in identifying this man so that deputies can determine what his intentions were."
The girl was near the intersection of West Lake Drive and 3rd Avenue at about 3 p.m. when a newer model, four-door, shiny black truck with chrome rims and a loud dual exhaust pulled up alongside her.
The driver was described as a white, heavyset man in his 30s with brown hair and a short beard.
"He asked her about a puppy of his that he said was missing and he even showed her a picture of a dog," Haught said. "Finally, he asked her if she would like to get into his truck and help him find the puppy at which time the girl ran to a neighbor's house."
The neighbor had witnessed the incident and
when she saw the man gesturing for the girl to get into the truck, the neighbor ran out of her house to go help the girl, Haught said, adding, when the neighbor appeared and the girl dashed away, the truck sped off.
The girl's father called the Sheriff's Office a short time later.
Responding deputies were not able to find the man. Anyone with information about this man or the truck is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at (386) 943-7866.