Man in pickup alarming residents

WINCHESTER — Parents in a local subdivision are scared and alarmed after a man in a truck was allegedly seen loitering and watching residents and their children.

On Sunday, Sandra Raynor noticed a metallic blue-green Ford Ranger lurking near Doolin Avenue and Taggart Drive in her neighborhood of Raven Pointe, located off Millwood Pike (U.S. 50) just east of the city.

According to Raynor, the man behind the wheel was white with shaggy hair and appeared to be in his 20s. The truck appeared to be a 1980s or 1990s model with a new paint job.

At one point, the man made Raynor uncomfortable as his car sat for an extended time at a stop sign near her house while she and her husband were in their yard.

“I felt like he was going to try to do something to hurt us,” she said. “I felt like something really bad was going to happen.”

On Monday at about 4:15 p.m., Stacy Clater watched as her toddler son began to pedal down the sidewalk on his tricycle in the area of Raven Wing — an adjoining subdivision. She said a greenish-blue truck then approached, braked suddenly, and pulled over to the sidewalk near her son.

The truck then drove past them and appeared to be headed toward Millwood Pike. Clater said that moments later, the vehicle was parked down the street in the grass and that a white male was hiding behind the bed of the truck as her son approached him on his tricycle.

Clater began screaming and took off toward her son. When he saw her, she said, the man got back in his truck and headed toward Millwood Pike.

“I knew what he was there for, and I just took off,” she said. “I feel like I was just steps away from having my son taken.”

On Tuesday, a 15-year-old teenager had just stepped off the school bus in the area of Taggart Drive when he said an electric blue Ford Ranger began tailing right behind him. The truck then pulled into a driveway.

After the teenager got home, he said he noticed that the truck was sitting outside his house. It left minutes later.

Another woman in one of the housing developments said she saw a vehicle with a matching description occupied by two white males in the area on Sept. 30.

No license number has been obtained in any of the alleged incidents.

“Everybody’s scared to death,” Raynor said. “Parents are coming home to get their kids off the bus and into the house. Nobody’s letting their kids play outside. Everybody’s talking about it.”

There are no criminal charges to be placed at this time, but the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office would like to speak with the individual, according to a Wednesday press release.

Anyone with information related to these reported incidents is asked to contact Capt. Allen Sibert at 540-662-6162. The public is asked to report any sightings of the vehicle and to not approach it or its occupant(s).

— Contact Rebecca Layne at rlayne@winchesterstar.com