Lakewood man charged with attempted luring of young children

LAKEWOOD -- "It was extremely scary. I almost started to cry because my mom wasn`t there and I started to get worried and then the guy tried to take me away,” 12-year-old Kail Findlay said.

It is the kind of fear no child should know.

Fortunately, Kail knew what to do last Friday when police say he was approached by 59-year-old Patrick Huber in front of Woodbrook Middle School.

"He says come with me and I said, no, I`m waiting on my mom and then I started walking backward and then I turn around and run to the school,” Findlay said.



Huber was in court Monday, not for the attempted luring of Kail, but because prosecutors say just a few minutes later just a few blocks from the school, Huber tried to lure two other children -- a 9-year-old girl and her4-year-old brother.

All of the children ran away and no one was hurt or touched, police said.

"So the police respond down there and they kind of connect the two events based on the description, they do a little digging and find that this guy, the suspect Patrick Huber, lived in that complex,” Lakewood police Lt. Chris Lawler said.

Police say Huber has some sex offenses from the mid-1980s but prosecutors say he may not be required to register as a sex offender.

He is also believed to have some history of mental illness.

Now that he is in jail, police will dig deeper into his past as part of a routine investigation to see where else he has been living and whether he could be responsible for any other crimes.

"There's nothing connecting to him at that point, nothing. We're just going to look at him like we would with anybody,” Lawler said.

Police say they are awaiting more evidence and an additional charge of luring could be filed in Kail’s case.

Police said stranger abductions are extremely rare, but they do happen and parents are urged to talk with their children about what they should do -- get away as fast as possible and tell an adult and never get into a car with someone they don’t know.