Villa Park cops seek man who grabbed 13-year-old girl

Police are searching for a man who grabbed a 13-year-old girl by the arm after asking her for money and offering her drugs while she walked to school Thursday morning in Villa Park, authorities said.

The encounter occurred about 8 a.m. near Westmore Avenue and Terrace Street.

Police said the girl was not hurt when the man approached her at North Terrace Park, not far from Jefferson Middle School in Villa Park-Lombard Elementary District 45. The man, who appeared intoxicated, asked the girl for money, offered her drugs and then grabbed her arm, authorities said.

District 45 is sending home a letter and informing parents about the incident with a phone call. Lombard Elementary District 44 also alerted parents about the incident in a recorded phone message. The district’s Pleasant Lane Elementary is about a mile and a half from North Terrace Park where the girl said she was grabbed.

According to the District 44 message, the man was described as Hispanic, at least 50 years old and 5 feet 2 inches tall with black hair in a buzz cut, an unshaven face and hairy arms. He was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt with a paint stain, authorities said.

Authorities are asking anyone who may have seen the man to call Villa Park police at (630) 834-7447 or Lombard police at (630) 873-4400.