Hayward police searching for attempted kidnapper

HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) -- Hayward police have released sketches of a man who they say tried to pull a 15-year-old girl into his car as she walked home from school on Friday. The same suspect may be linked another attempted kidnapping of a girl just last month.

Araceley Molina is worried.

"I have little kids, scared for them to be in yard," said Molina.

Police say a 15-year-old girl was walking home from school on Whitman Avenue on Friday afternoon, when a man tried to pull her into his white sedan, possibly a Honda. The victim fought back and got away unharmed. She gave police enough info for a sketch.

The man is described as a thin white man in his early 20's with a scruffy beard, about 5 feet 7 inches tall. He was wearing prescription glasses. Police also released a sketch without the glasses.

"I have seen him walking over here, he was singing, turned up on phone, walking here," said Molina.

"He walked past Hayward High. She says she's seen him," said parent Rhonda Leopold.

Leopold's daughter swears she's seen him too.

"I saw him by my school. He was walking, not doing anything," said Taylor Leopold.

Last month, a man wearing a hoodie, matching a similar description tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl into his white sedan near Joshua and Ebony Way. She got away and now police are connecting the crimes.

"We are actively pursuing the fact that these two cases may be related," said Lt. Jeff Snell with Hayward Police.

Parents are on alert.

"It's like you can't allow your girls to walk alone, or your boys," said parent Dawn King.