Los Altos police have confirmed that there have been two recent incidents of a heavy-set blond woman approaching a child and inviting the child to go with her.
"These are child annoyance cases," said Los Altos Police Chief Lucy Carlton, of the latest incident, May 20 at McKenzie Park, and the May 5 incident at a Los Altos Hills home. These are not attempted kidnappings. "Not one person has touched a child," Carlton said.
These incidents come on the heels of police and school notifications that go back to an "attempted abduction," according to a police flier, of a 5-year-old on March 8 in Fremont; an effort to lure a 9-year-old girl from a school on March 10 in Palo Alto.
In each incident, the suspect was described as a woman, blond, medium weight, medium height, a description similar to the woman approaching children in Los Altos.
By last week panicked parents were blitzing the Los Altos School District and the police department with queries and reported sightings.
"Is it the same person? We don't know," said Los Altos police Sgt. Mark Macaulay. "That's the hard part. She's been described as anywhere from in her 20s to her 50s, from 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 9 inches, from having blond to brown hair."
Macaulay said he held a meeting with other law enforcement agencies two weeks ago "to come over here to see about common features. We checked the registered sex offenders." They found nothing, Macaulay said.
The most recent incident happened at McKenzie Park, off Fremont Avenue and Altos Oaks Drive, about 12:40 p.m. on May 20, Macaulay said.
A mother, watching two 5-year-old children in the playground area, overheard two children talking to someone. When she went to investigate, the subject, a female with blond hair, walked away, police said.
The witness said the woman had asked the children where they lived and then offered them candy. She asked the children to go to the mall with her. They said no, police said.
An earlier incident, about 5 p.m. on May 5 at a home in Los Altos Hills, involved a woman who went to the door, when the parents were out, carrying a teddy bear.
She told the child her mother sent her to pick her up. The child called her father and the woman, a heavy-set blond, left. The Santa Clara County Sheriff's department released a sketch of the suspect.
A resident on Marvin Avenue in Los Altos reported seeing a woman matching that description, "walking down Marvin Avenue carrying a bag of groceries," Macaulay said. "She was certain the woman was the one in the sketch." She saw the woman May 17 and reported it May 18.
Residents hung posters around the area, on Day-Glo pink poster board, saying, "Attempted Kidnapper, seen on Marvin, May 17, 4 p.m."
In response, the Los Altos School District sent out a copy of the police department "Parental Advisement" flier last Thursday.
"Even with what we have now, according to the district attorney, there is insufficient evidence to charge with child annoyance," Macaulay said. "That must include some type of lewd activity. And she's never put her hands on (any of the children)," Macaulay said.
The Los Altos Police and the Los Altos School District will be hosting a community meeting at 7 p.m. on June 14 at Almond School, "to give out information we do have and to provide 'stranger-danger' information," Macaulay said.