GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Georgetown man was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping after an allegation that he “attempted to lure” a 10-year-old girl into a van, according to court records.
Moises Quebrado Vergara is accused of following a 10-year-old girl in his white van from where she was dropped off by the school bus to her home, according to Vergara’s arrest citation.
The girl reported that “Vergara attempted to lure her into his van by finger gestures and verbal communications numerous times,” according to the citation.
Part of the interaction was caught on a home security camera in the south Georgetown neighborhood where the incident occurred, according to the citation.
LEX 18’s Leigh Searcy obtained the footage, which shows a man getting out of a white van, walking to the back door of the vehicle, and briefly saying something to a young girl walking by in the opposite direction. As the girl walks away, the man opens the back door of the van, leans in, closes it, and then gets back into the vehicle and drives away.
Another video from the same camera taken soon after shows that van driving back into frame, now going in the same direction the girl was going.
Georgetown police identified Vergara as the man in the video, and when they spoke to him about it he “admitted to being in the video, but stated it was all a misunderstanding,” according to his arrest citation.
Assistant Chief Josh Nash with the Georgetown Police Department told LEX 18 that there were five prior reports of similar incidents since 2022 involving a man fitting Vergara’s description and the description of a white van.
Investigators are going back to look into those prior incidents, but Nash said they’re “pretty confident this subject is the same subject.”
Nash also said the home security video captured in this incident was key in identifying a suspect and pressing charges.
“I think it was a good civic duty of the neighbor, when they saw something odd happening, they really didn't know what was going on but it struck their curiosity so they took the initiative to go out and that's awesome,” Nash said.
Nash also praised a neighbor who stepped in, second-shift officers who worked the case, and an on-call officer who didn't stop until he found the suspect.
