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ST. GEORGE — St. George police say a 16-year-old girl was able to escape from a man who tried to pull her into his vehicle Wednesday.
According to police, the teenager said she was on Hilton Drive near a roundabout about a block north of 1470 South when she saw a man standing next to a Jeep and smoking a cigarette around 3:45 p.m.
The girl reported the man grabbed her arm and began pulling her toward the Jeep, St. George police said.
"The male told her 'You need to get in the vehicle,'" the agency said in a statement.
The girl reacted in the best way possible by fighting back, screaming and getting away from the man, said St. George police officer Lona Trombley.
"She knew she needed to be loud, she knew she had to fight, do her best to break away from the situation and run," Trombley said.
The girl reported she looked back as she ran away and saw a blonde female voluntarily get into the Jeep, at which point the vehicle began driving northwest toward Blackridge Drive.
The man is described as white, in his 30s, slightly more than 5 feet 6 inches tall, with shaggy hair as well as facial hair. The Jeep is an older model, white with a tinted back window with multiple stickers on it.
Reports of stranger kidnappings are rare in St. George, according to Trombley.
"This is very unusual and because it's so unusual, we are very concerned" she said. "We definitely want to figure out who this person is and figure out what his exact purpose was and address any crimes that were committed."
Anyone who has information about this case is asked to call St. George police dispatch at 435-627-4300 or detective Robert Raybould at 435-627-4378.
