WATCH: Boy, 10, escapes woman he says tried to lure him away

Published: Nov. 15, 2022 at 2:40 AM CST
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POTTSTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) - A 10-year-old boy used some quick thinking to avoid a scary situation after a woman followed him on his way home from school.

Sammy Green, 10, was walking home from school Friday in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, when a woman started following him on High Street. He didn’t know the woman, but she insisted she knew his family and said he was supposed to go with her to a convenience store.

“He said that she probably knew me and she was going to Wawa and that he was supposed to go with her and he can get anything he wanted,” said Sammy’s father, Sam Green.

Sammy Green, 10, was walking home from school when a woman started following him. He used some...
Sammy Green, 10, was walking home from school when a woman started following him. He used some quick thinking to escape the scary situation.(Source: Family photos, WPVI via CNN)

But Sammy knew something was wrong. His dad had taught him what to do in a situation like this, so he walked inside Dani Bee Funky, a store he was familiar with just down the street from his house.

Surveillance video shows Sammy walk in the store, go straight to the cashier and whisper something to her.

“He felt comfortable enough to come on in here, and he came right around the corner to where Hannah was and whispered in her ear,” said the store’s owner, Dani Small.

“He said to ‘act like you’re my mom. This lady is following me,’” Sammy’s father said.

Video shows the cashier, after processing what is going on, get between Sammy and the woman, who is still holding the door open. She then walks over, pulls the door shut and locks it.

The woman ran off.

“When I was watching that video, I cried every time I saw it,” Sammy’s father said.

Sammy’s father and the store owner aren’t sure what the woman was trying to do with the 10-year-old, but they know Sammy and the cashier both did the right thing to keep the little boy safe.

“He just knew something was not right and did what he needed to do,” Small said.

“He did what he was supposed to do because he didn’t know the person,” Sammy’s father said.

Police have tracked down the woman seen in the video. She is being referred for mental health help.