WEST PARIS — Police discovered that a suspect in an alleged attempted abduction of a student Wednesday was actually a driver sent to pick up a student, but stopped at the wrong house.
On Friday, Assistant Superintendent Patrick Hartnett said the driver was transporting a student to a school that is not affiliated with the Oxford Hills School District.
Hartnett alerted parents Wednesday after a man knocked on the front door of a Main Street house that morning and told a parent he was there to transport her child to school.
Law enforcement quickly responded to the scene and spent the next two days investigating.
On Friday morning, Capt. Christopher Wainwright of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office said the incident appears to be a complete misunderstanding.
Apparently, a driver from a transportation company was sent to pick up an “alternative education” student in West Paris on Wednesday morning, Wainwright said. That driver’s vehicle supposedly broke down, and a taxi driver from a Rumford-area company was dispatched instead, Wainwright explained.
Unfortunately, the substitute driver had the incorrect address, but saw a child and knocked on the door of the home, believing it was the student he was there to pick up, Wainwright said.
“He wasn’t even on the right street,” he said.
Investigators learned about the mistake Thursday evening, Wainwright said.
Although the case turned out to be a miscommunication, Wainwright said the Sheriff’s Office takes incidents involving children seriously and investigators put significant resources into tracking down a suspect and closing the case.
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