A Reno man who was the subject of a four-hour search Thursday after a report of a attempted abduction was cleared of those suspicions after he was interviewed by police.
Fallon Assistant Police Chief Ray Dolan said the 42-year-old man admitted he solicited a local teen for sex but denied he tried to kidnap her.
The ordeal began at 9:45 a.m. when the teen's mother reported someone tried to abduct her daughter from the Blockbuster parking lot. The teen told officers a man in a white mini-van with tinted windows approached her as she was on her way to Safeway to seek employment.
Dolan said the girl described the man as white, in his late 40s with blondish-grey hair and a receding hairline. He was wearing a blue shirt and had age spots on his forehead, the girl said.
Police said the man asked the teen what she was doing and was told she was going to look for work at the grocery store. At that point, the girl reported that the stranger said he took photographs of models and asked her "if she wanted some one-on-one, referring to prostitution," Dolan said.
She told police she responded by saying she wasn't a prostitute and the man said she looked like one and grabbed her arm in an attempt to pull her into the van.
"We immediately started a search and notified the outlying agencies with a description of the vehicle and suspect," said Dolan.
After checking a number of white vans in the city, a Fallon detective in an unmarked car spotted the vehicle and suspect near Taco Bell on Williams Avenue at 1:25 p.m. The vehicle was traveling westbound, and the detective followed it until a Churchill County Sheriff's deputy could respond.
The deputy stopped the van just past Hazen.
"Through further interviews with the victim, we were able to determine it was not an attempted kidnapping or abduction. Evidence shows it was a solicitation for prostitution," Dolan said.
The Reno resident told police he spotted the teen walking across Williams Avenue and "liked the way she walked."
"He admits he did ask her if she wanted to earn some money one-on-one but he adamantly denies anything about him working for a modeling agency or grabbing and trying to pull her into the van," Dolan said.
"I'm very confident after the interview that there is no evidence that would lead me to believe this would be a dangerous individual," he added.
The man works for a company based in Reno that does business with NAS Fallon.
The case has been turned over to the Fallon city attorney's office to determine if misdemeanor charge of solicitation of prostitution will be filed against the man.
n Marlene Garcia can be contacted at mgarcia@lahontanvalleynews.com
