Dowagiac police are investigating a possible connection between a recent abduction attempt in Dowagiac and a Niles woman’s claim that a man posing as a Cass County home inspector visited her home Monday.

Steven Grinnewald, Dowagiac deputy police chief, said Tuesday his department is sending a detective to speak with Kim Welling, who reported that a suspicious man knocked on a sliding glass door at the rear of her home at 1219 Carberry Rd. around 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Grinnewald said Welling’s description of the man and the vehicle he was driving is similar to that of a man who attempted to abduct a woman in Dowagiac on the evening of Nov. 29.

In both cases, the subject was described as a male around the age of 40, medium height with dirty blond hair and wearing a flannel shirt. The suspect vehicle in both cases was described as a white Ford pickup truck.

“At the very least, it sounds like the description is similar to ours (case), but obviously it was not the same circumstances as ours,” Grinnewald said. “It is one of those things we are following up on.”

Grinnewald said his department first learned of Welling’s report after reading about it in Tuesday’s newspaper.

In an interview with the Niles Daily Star, Welling described the subject as a white male, medium build and average height, early to mid-40s, with dirty blond hair and wearing a flannel shirt and blue jeans. He claimed to be with the “Cass County Home Inspection Department” and said he needed to check her house.

Welling asked for identification and the man said he would go to his truck to get it. The man then left in the truck, which Welling described as a white, newer, extended cab Ford F-150.

In the Dowagiac incident, a 26-year-old female was walking alone on a bridge on Jefferson Street near Paris Street when a man in a white Ford pickup truck pulled next to her and asked her to come in. When she refused, the man got out of the truck and tried to pull her into the vehicle. She escaped and ran to a nearby residence.

The Dowagiac victim described her attacker as a white male, approximately 40 years old, 6 feet tall with dirty blond hair. The suspect was reportedly wearing a blue plaid flannel-type shirt. The suspect vehicle was described as a newer model Ford pickup truck, white in color with some type of chrome roll bar in the bed or back of the truck.

Grinnewald said it is too early to tell if the incidences are connected.

“Anyone with any information should report it even if you think it might not matter,” Grinnewald said.