Two Pennsylvania teens are being hailed as heroes after they chased down a man in a car who had snatched a five-year-old girl from her grandmother's front yard - on their bikes.
Jocelyn Rojas, five, was missing for two hours yesterday when Temar Boggs and a friend saw the child in a car near Lancaster Township and gave chase.
After Boggs, 15, and his friend had been tailing the vehicle for 15 minutes, the driver let the little girl out of the car and sped off.
Now that the little girl is safely back with her family, police are focusing on finding the suspect.
Jocelyn Rojas was playing in the front yard of her grandmother's home on the 100 block of Jennings Drive in Lancaster Township when she disappeared at about 4:35pm Thursday.
The family notified police and officers sprang into action, blocking off streets and scouring the area with canine units. Police showed Jocelyn's picture around the neighborhood and Boggs and his friend joined more than 100 first responders searching for the girl.
Boggs spottted the girl in the abductor's car and he and his friend began to follow the car.
The high school student said the little girl ran towards him when she got out of the car.
'If he wasn't going to stop, I was probably going to like, jump on the car,' Boggs told ABC6.
Boggs said the suspect would turn around to see if they were still following him after they began to give chase.
'As soon as the guy started noticing that we were chasing him, he stopped at the end of the hill and let her out, and she ran to me and said that she needed her mom,' he said.
Boggs took the little girl to the police and they contacted her frantic mother and family.
Police say the teens may have scared the abductor into giving the girl up and their bravery is being praised by the girl's family and police.
Sergeant Jeff Jones told WGAL, 'It is possible this individual saw the boys following him and it is possible he got nervous. We don't know that for sure; I'd sure like to find out,' he said.
Jocelyn Rojas' grandmother Tracey Clay was overcome with gratitude to Boggs.
'Thank you. You're our hero,' she said hugging and kissing him.
'He's our hero. I mean, there's no words to say,' she told WGAL.
'You see the amber alerts and you think, "I feel for that family." But when you're in that situation. Oh my god, it's horrible,' she said.
'It’s just something you don’t wish on anybody. Horrible, horrible thoughts flashed through my mind.'
Police say the male suspect drove the girl in a maroon, burgundy or purple-colored sedan, most likely a Chevy, almost half a mile from her home.
The latest reports say he had offered to buy the child ice-cream and had driven towards an ice-cream parlor.
It's not clear where the man had taken Jocelyn in the intervening hours between the discovery she was missing and Temar Boggs' spotting of her in the kidnapper's car.
WGAL reports the man was wearing green shoes and green pants with a red and white striped shirt at the time of the abduction, and that he walks with a limp. He is believed to be aged between 50 and 70 years old.
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