Published: June 01, 2009 08:49 am      

Sheriff searching Lily for suspicious Camaro

By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

A couple of incidents involving what is thought to be a red Chevrolet Camaro and an 11-year-old girl are under investigation by the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department.

According to Sheriff’s Detective Charles Loomis, on Sunday the girl was with friends alongside Echo Valley Road in the Lily community when some young men in a Camaro pulled up on the side of the road. One of the men reached out and pinched her on the arm, then pulled away.

Wednesday afternoon before about 6 p.m., the department got a report of a second incident, when the driver of the Camaro reportedly “swerved at her, like playing chicken, and caused her to dodge out of the road,” Loomis said.

On Friday, deputies were patrolling the Lily area looking for the Camaro and unknown driver.

Loomis said that even though the incidents “sound like just dangerous horse-play,” deputies are patrolling the area more often.

“We’d like to get in contact with someone who was in the vehicle and talk with them,” he said.

The child’s grandmother, Vivian Whittamore, told WYMT-TV she thought the driver of the car, described as a white male in his early 20s, was trying to abduct the girl.

But police didn’t confirm a kidnapping motive. Loomis said the deputies just want to know what’s happening — they’d like to know why the driver did it and to ask him to not do it again.

“It’s just an unsafe act right now, but it caused alarm in the area, and could be a potential crime,” he said.