When a 14-year-old Penn Township girl was approached at the bus stop by an unknown man, the community went into overdrive searching for him.

Friends and neighbors of the girl's family started following vehicles similar to the red SUV the man was driving. They took pictures and wrote down license plate numbers.

They found a red SUV at a home nearby and notified police. An investigation determined the car's owner had nothing to do with the incident, said recently retired Penn Township Police Chief Sam Gilbert, who was in charge as the case was being investigated.

Gilbert said parents and children are doing the right thing by being cautious.

"People pay attention more and report it, that's what we want," Gilbert said. "Even if the vast majority turn out to be nothing."

But it's important to strike a balance between fear and caution, said South Western School District Superintendent Barbara Rupp.

As superintendent, it is Rupp's job to decide when, when not, and how to notify students' parents when there is an incident reported at a school-bus stop in the district. But it is important not to talk too much about abduction and strangers, she said, because children can end up constantly living in fear.

"It's a fine line between scaring people and making people aware," Rupp said, adding that she tends to come down on the side of safety.

Detective Richard Keefer of the Eastern Adams Regional Police said he thinks there has been an increase

Penn Township has investigated two suspicious incidents in recent weeks.

An 8-year-old boy was approached by a person in a blue pickup after he got off the bus one afternoon, just down the street from where the 14-year-old was approached. He, like the 14-year-old, ran inside his house instead of responding to the driver. The vehicle drove off.

The cases were handled as investigations into "routine suspicious vehicles," Gilbert said. If the men in the vehicles would have done more than just honked the horn and motioned for the children, police would be investigating the cases differently, he said.

In each recent suspicious incident, the children told their parents who notified the schools and police.

"The bottom line is that everybody's done everything right," Gilbert said.

Rupp said the district sent home letters with elementary-school students and talked with children on the buses after the 8-year-old was approached. Announcements have been made over the intercoms at high and middle schools and parents have been urged to talk to their children about stranger safety.

But after her 14-year-old daughter was approached April 24, Leslie Dietz wondered whether the school district was doing enough.

It took days, Dietz said, for a letter about the incident to reach her house.

"The thing is, had he gotten out of the truck and physically chased her, there's nobody around," Dietz said about the incident.

Penn Township hasn't been the only location where suspicious incidents involving students and strangers have been reported.

Hanover Borough Police Chief Randy Whitson recalled a November incident where a man tried to lure several Hanover Middle School students into his car. Police have since charged a New Oxford man in the incident.

Whitson said there haven't been any similar incidents since.

Eastern Adams Regional Police investigated an April 20 incident where an 8-year-old girl from Berwick Township was playing by the road when a van pulled up and the driver offered her money to get in the vehicle. She and her siblings were able to provide police with a description of the driver, who was later located.

But police determined the incident was meant as a joke and the man and female passenger didn't want to harm the child.

Dietz, who works for the YWCA of Hanover's Safe Home program, said she's not paranoid by nature but thinks the recent incidents show someone is trawling the area.

Ever since her daughter was little, Dietz said, they spoke about stranger safety. The issue was discussed in elementary school, as well, but she thinks the discussion should continue more into middle and high school.

It's about having that peace of mind, she said, adding that as children get older they begin to feel immortal.

Since the incident, Dietz has been driving her daughter to school, dropping her off on the way to work.

"There's no substitute for watching your child," she said.

Rupp shared the sentiment, saying that there are too many bus stops to have school officials at each one, but she encouraged parents to meet their children there.

"Almost every time I go by a stop in the morning, there's at least one parent waiting there," she said.

Contact Katharine Harmon at kharmon@eveningsun.com.

BY THE NUMBERS

Although some experts say they believe the number of child abductions every year is going up, it is difficult to determine the extent of the problem. But one thing is certain: The vast majority of missing-children cases do not involve abduction by strangers.

According to most statistics, "stereotypical" abductions, such as those involving a stranger who kidnaps a child with malicious intent, are far lower than we might be led to believe. According to the Justice Department, in the past 20 years, the per-capita child abduction by non-family members has not increased appreciably. Almost 80 percent of child abductions are not by strangers. More than 200,000 children are kidnapped each year by family members seeking to interfere with parental visitation rights, while 58,000 are taken by non-family members and returned unharmed. By comparison, only 115 cases of kidnappings occurred for the purpose of ransom or harm.

PREVENTION

Tips for preventing child abductions:

Check out baby sitters and suspicious people in the neighborhood using sex offender Web sites and the FBI.

Tell your children what to do if they are approached by strangers.

Develop code words for anyone you trust to pick up your children and tell your children not to go with anyone who doesn't know the code.

Show children safe places in your neighborhood to run to if they feel threatened.

Warn children not to fall for common lures such as helping find a lost puppy or getting candy.

Have photos taken of your children every six months and have your child fingerprinted.