AVALON PARK, Fla. – A father is thankful that his daughter was with her friend on Saturday when a man attempted to kidnap her in Avalon Park.
"I'm glad she and her friend used their heads and were able to get out of the situation that they were in," he told News 6.
The father, whom News 6 has chosen not to identify, said his daughter, 11, and her friend were on their way to CVS to buy candy.
As the two girls were riding their bikes after leaving CVS on Avalon Park Boulevard and were close to Publix and the dog park, an unknown man tried to pull his daughter off her bike by grabbing her right shoulder, the victim told police.
According to the report, the victim told police that the man did not say anything to her after his attempt to pull her from her bicycle, and her friend was able to help her by pulling her other shoulder. The two girls rode away.
The friend of the victim told police that she yelled “Run, go,” and they pedaled down Avalon Park Boulevard as fast as they could.
"The girl that was with my daughter started to get a cramp and she had to stop. They turned around and they saw the gentleman was still walking towards them," he told News 6.
They were near the roundabout at Avalon Park and Rain Tree when they noticed the man again.
The pair pedaled to the victim’s house and told her parents about the incident.
The girl's father, who was at a baseball game, received a text from his wife telling him what happened.
"As I keep thinking more and more about it, it becomes more and more real," he told News 6.
His wife told police this it was the first time that the girls had left the house without their parents and she was tracking her daughter's iPhone.
"We have an app, and it monitored where she goes, and she was on it the whole time and she knew exactly where she was," the victim's father told News 6.
The girl's mother told police that she noticed that her daughter’s phone stopped moving at 5:16 p.m. and she sent her a text to see if everything was OK, the report said.
She noticed that the phone started moving again at 5:32 p.m. According to the report, the girl's mother believes that the man attempted to abduct her between 5:16 and 5:32 p.m.
The victim's father told News 6 that his daughter no longer wants to be alone.
"It doesn't really affect her until she has to go take a shower or things like that," he said.
He said he's thankful that his daughter was with her friend and made it home safely.
"I'm glad she and her friend used their heads and were able to get out of the situation that they were in," he said.