11-year-old girl fights back, escapes kidnapper at Florida bus stop

Source: Laura Olivas / Getty

An 11-year-old girl successfully escaped a would-be kidnapper in Florida- and the whole thing was caught on camera.

Surveillance video shows a man get out of his SUV at a bus stop and try to grab the girl, who manages to fight him off before he gets back in the car and flees.  Police say the man was armed with a knife. The alleged kidnapper, 30-year-old Jared Stanga, is now in custody.

Police say he has a “lengthy criminal history”, including sexual abuse of a child, and had painted his SUV a different color to avoid capture. Even more disturbing – it might not have been Stanga’s first attempt.  The victim told her principal just two weeks earlier than a man in a white vehicle had stopped at her bus stop and talked to her.

How have you talked to your children about ‘stranger danger’?

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