NYPD: Girl lured into car with stranger, driven around Queens for an hour

WOODHAVEN, Queens (WABC) -- Police are looking for a man who lured a girl into his car and drove her for an hour in Queens Wednesday morning.

Authorities say the 10-year-old girl was walking on 102nd Street and 88th Avenue in Woodhaven around 7 a.m. when a man in a gray vehicle pulled up and started talking to her.

"I was in the front of the school," she said. "Someone just stopped in front of the school and said, 'Why are you here?'"

She reportedly told him she was going to school, and he said he was a friend of the family and would drive her. The victim got into the car.

"He said, 'Come in the car because I know where (the school) is,'" she said.

On Thursday, the NYPD released a poster seeking information in the case:

The victim's grandfather was also in the area and saw her get in the vehicle. He gave chase, but he was unable to get to the car before it drove off.

"My dad tried to stop the car," the girl's mother said. "He said, 'Why you take her, why you take her?' The man drive fast."

She said the stranger apparently got scared after about an hour and dropped the girl off in Jamaica, near Jamaica Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. She walked the rest of the way to her school, where she reported what happened.

"Thank God, I am so glad," her mother said. "I want the police to catch this person, because I don't want what happened with my daughter to happen to other people too."

Police have identified the vehicle as a silver 2001 to 2003 Acura TL.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).