Police Still Waiting to Interview Pickup Driver in Treesdale Child-Luring Incident

Two weeks after declaring the case solved, Adams Township police have not met—nor do they know the name of—the pickup driver who set off child-luring fears earlier this month in Treesdale.

Adams Township  called the incident four days earlier a "misunderstanding." At that time, the chief said the man who pulled up in a pickup truck beside an 11-year-old boy was simply trying to give the child a bag to clean up after the dog the boy was walking.

Police still do not know the man's name, however, because his explanation of his presence in the neighborhood came via telephone calls and an emailed statement from the man's attorney, Westerman said. The chief did not identify the attorney.

When asked if police ran a criminal background check or looked to determine if the man was registered as a sex offender on the Megan's Law registry, Westerman said officers will do that when they learn the man's name.

"We will meet," said the chief, but he declined to say when that meeting would take place. "But he will come in and talk with us."

Asked why he declared the case solved before talking to the man directly, Westerman said he knew the man was the person involved in the encounter with the boy because the man knew and provided details that had not been released or published.

"He's just embarrassed to death. He realized he shouldn't have done it. He made a mistake," the chief said.

"When I was a kid, if someone stopped and said, 'How ya doin'?' I would have said, 'Fine. What do you need?' " Westerman said. "Today that doesn't happen."

Asked if the investigation is still open, Westerman replied: "It is open, but it ain't open. Basically, it's done and over with."

The boy ran to a neighbor's house on Old Orchard Drive and called police. The area is just north of the Pine Township border.

The community became concerned after the boy's mother sent out an email to friends and family on the evening of the incident that became widely circulated over that weekend.

Adams and police departments sent out notices to the Mars and school districts. The districts published the notices on their websites on the Monday after the incident.

By the next afternoon, Westerman announced that the incident was a "misunderstanding" and the case was solved.

also published an update on its website March 6, saying Adams Township police had advised Chief T. Robert Amann that the case was solved. 

Contacted by Patch, the mother said she did not want to comment on the status of the police case. 

When asked for a copy of the police report, Westerman told Patch on Friday to file a Right-to-Know request and he would consult with the township's solicitor. Initially, the request was expected to take a maximum of five days to review, as the Right-to-Know Law stipulates.

However, Patch received a fax notice Tuesday that said the review will take as long as 30 days.

"A legal review is necessary to determine whether the record is a public record that is subject to access," according to an Adams Township public record review notice that Westerman sent, in his role as police municipal records officer.

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