CASSOPOLIS – Sheriff Joseph Underwood Jr. reports his office was called to assist Cassopolis Police Department at the Cass County Fairgrounds for the possible abduction of a young child.
Tuesday at about 8:50 p.m., a Cassopolis officer took a complaint on the midway from a witness, 10, who saw a child about 5 years old saying he lost his mother.
A male subject approached the child, knelt down and told him he knew his mother and would take him to her.
The witness heard the child tell the male subject he did not know him.
The adult male subject picked the child up and started walking to the O¹Keefe Street parking lot.
It appeared to the witness that the child was struggling and did not want to go with the man.
Cassopolis police, Sheriff¹s Office deputies, Mounted Division deputies, Michigan State Police, Pokagon Band Tribal Police, Cass County fire and ambulance personnel and fair board personnel worked together, as a precautionary effort, to check all vehicles in the parking area, all subjects at the fairgrounds who matched the description given of the victim and suspect and checked passenger compartments and trunks of vehicles leaving the fairgrounds until the fair closed Aug. 3.
Authorities cautioned that at the time of this statement there had been no reports of missing children by any parents relating to this incident and the
complaint has not substantiated as an actual abduction.
But due to the nature of the complaint, all precautionary measures were taken.