Boy walking home from school outsmarts stranger luring him into SUV, Texas police say

A stranger tried to lure a boy walking home from school into an SUV, but the child outsmarted the man, Texas police say.

The boy’s family believes it stopped a kidnapping.

The 13-year-old was walking home from school Monday when a black Honda SUV stopped on the road next to him in Geogetown, a city north of Austin, according to a news release. It was a box-shaped vehicle with a dirty interior that smelled of cigarette smoke, police said.

A man inside the SUV, who wore a gray and yellow baseball cap and dark, short-sleeve shirt, said the boy’s mom had instructed him to give the child a ride home, police said.

“I thought he was going to get out of the car to try and snatch me, so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh this is it,’” Daniel Whitecloud, the seventh-grade student, told KXAN.

However, Daniel had been prepared for these types of situations.

He asked the stranger to give him the family safe code word, police said. When the man couldn’t answer, he drove away.

The boy didn’t enter the SUV, nor did the man try to force him inside, police said.

“We understand that these types of incidents are deeply concerning, and we are investigating this incident,” police said in the news release. “Parents are asked to review basic child safety tips with their children as this incident is a great example of when one of those tips was effective.”

Daniel’s mom, Adrianna Eldredge, is glad she gave her son a password, KXAN reported.

“I’m glad that we were prepared for it, but I am terrified that it might happen again, or that it might happen to somebody else,” Eldredge told KXAN.