
Two incidents involving male motorists approaching young female students on their way to school last week have no apparent connection and are not a cause for alarm, Southampton Town Police Sergeant Lisa Costa said on Tuesday.
Town Police said last week they had placed extra patrols near all schools in the town after a man approached a Bridgehampton School student last Thursday morning, December 15, on Norris Drive and asked if she wanted a ride to school.
The next morning, on Friday, a Southampton Intermediate School student was waiting at a bus stop on Lakeside Drive off North Sea Road in North Sea, when a man drove by her a few times, making her nervous, police said.
Neither girl was harmed, officers said.
“There was nothing to cause an alarm. There were no attempts at abductions,” Sgt. Costa said. “Basically, the two incidents are isolated.”
Two different men are believed to be involved, she said.
Town Police Sergeant Susan Ralph said last Thursday that a man in a four-door sedan approached a junior-high-school-aged girl about a block from the Bridgehampton School and offered her a ride. “The child had the wherewithal not to get in the car,” Sgt. Ralph said.
The student reported the incident to school officials, who then alerted police at about 9:30 a.m. Police said they did not have the exact time of the incident, but said it may have been around 8 a.m. They did not provide a copy of the incident report.
In the North Sea case, the student reported the incident to the Southampton Intermediate School psychologist, who then called police shortly before 8 a.m.