IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) - A mystery man suspected of luring kids near schools in imperial beach may be back at it.
At Bayside Steam Academy - during a Tuesday gym class - 12-year-old Ivory Sanchez was running laps. She happened to be near a back gate with no one else around.
Ivory's mother, Jessica Sanchez, says a man was waving at Ivory, trying to grab her attention, before he started shouting at her with an urgent plea.
"Called her over and pretty much said, 'Open the gate. Open the gate!'" said Sanchez.
She says her daughter felt scared because no one else was in the immediate area and she ran back into school.
Later, she told her mother about the incident.
"She said he didn't look clean and he had a long ponytail," said Sanchez.
Sanchez says the middle-aged man Ivory described seemed eerily similar to the man deputies were looking for two years ago near Mar Vista High, also in Imperial Beach.
Parents then described to 10News the man seen around schools and outside homes, offering free iPads and tutoring classes that school officials knew nothing about.
After media coverage, there were no more sightings of him. If it is the same person, Sanchez worries about a bold pattern.
"He's shown he doesn't care. He does it out in the open," said Sanchez.
Sanchez reported the incident to the school, which says their investigation is ongoing. 10News reached out to deputies to see if there's a link but have yet to hear back.
