Deputies on Alert For Suspicious Man Who Tried to Lure Children Into Woods on Peppercorn Lane

Authorities are on the lookout for a man with a tattoo on his face who attempted to lure two young children to a vacant, wooded lot on Palm Coast’s Peppercorn Lane Monday evening. The children involved were a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.

“I’ve just had an attempted child abduction,” the children’s father, calling 911 that evening, told the dispatcher. “My kids were out playing in the front yard and on the street and a gentleman–I won’t even call him a gentleman–a scumbag tried to lure my daughter into the woods. My neighbors saw this and came out in their front yard. They’ve got a full description my kids have a full description.”

The 48-year-old father later told deputies that his daughter and son were approached by a man who offered them $20 and asked his daughter “if she knew of any good hiding places in the vacant wooded lot across the street,” according to an incident report. The children didn’t follow the man. The girl went home crying. “The unknown male did not physically touch the children nor did he ask for any sexual performance acts from the children,” the report states.

The incident had taken place minutes before the 911 call. One of the neighbors told the dispatcher of seeing a short, stocky white man with dark hair, wearing “big, baggy long pants” and an oversized plaid green shirt, who kept walking on Peppercorn Lane.

The neighbor said she saw another suspicious man as well, though the two men appeared not to be together. The second man had appeared three or four minutes after the first one.

“The first guy, he talked to the kids,” the neighbor told the 911 dispatcher, “there were three of them, two boys and a girl outside playing with a skateboard, and he said something to them and then walked over to the side, to the vacant lot, but the kids didn’t follow him.”

The suspicious individual who had spoken to the children is described in the incident report as a white male, 5’5”, about 145 lbs., wearing long pants and a light colored collared shirt with the buttons undone and a white t-shirt underneath the long sleeve shirt. The man has a black tattoo on the right side of his face and may be carrying a black backpack. He was last seen going through a wooded lot located at Pepper Lane.

Multiple sheriff’s units canvased the area without results. Residents have requested additional patrols in the neighborhood.

Wednesday morning, a FlaglerLive reader sent in the following message: “I have tried to contact dispatch on info regarding the man trying to lure children into the woods. But when I called they said they didn’t need any more information. Where should I call next that will actually listen to me.”