Man tries to pull boy into car near Mesa school

Security at Skyline High School in Mesa has been alerted after police on Monday were unable to locate a man who made a sexual suggestion to a boy after grabbing him and trying to pull him inside his car near the school.

The boy, 16, was walking in the 400 block of South Cheshire Street, which is near Patterson Elementary School, about 8:45 a.m. when a man driving a four-door Acura pulled the car over, opened the passenger door and grabbed the boy, trying to pull him inside the car, police said.

The boy, who is not a student at Skyline, punched the man in the groin and ran home.

The boy described the man as being Asian, 40 to 50 years old, balding, 130 to 150 pounds and wearing small tight shorts and a T-shirt.

Nine schools in the Mesa Unified School District sent out phone notifications to parents with a description of the suspect and information about what happened, said Kathy Bareiss, district spokeswoman.

"We had security officers in the area as students were leaving school for the day," Bareiss said. "Throughout the day, there were police and district security combing the area."

In addition, the district sent notifications and descriptions of the man to bus drivers.

"We have 471 buses on the road. That's another big set of eyes on the road watching for the safety of kids," Bareiss said.