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“We don’t know if they did it for attention or what. We have no idea,” the chief said. “But it never happened.”
“Their parents had them on high alert because of what’s going on around the county,” O’Connor told CLIFFVIEW PILOT just after midnight. “This poor guy is toiling out there, trying to make a buck. He was doing work [Monday] afternoon in the neighborhood where they live.
“For whatever reason, they memorized his license plate and made up the story.”
A mother called police, who were easily able to find the 27-year-old, out-of-county contractor, who was at a job on Valley Brook Road when the youngsters saw his white van.
“He was 100 percent cooperative, an absolute gentleman,” O’Connor said. “He told us to look through the truck, whatever we felt we needed to do.”
While detectives were talking to him, others were interviewing the boys separately, the chief said.
“After some intensive questions, both kids said it wasn’t true,” O’Connor said.
The heightened awareness stemmed from incidents the past 10 days in Hackensack, Maywood and Oradell in which possible luring attempts were reported. Both Hackensack and Maywood police released sketches, while adding that the descriptions were very similar. The vehicles, however, were all different.
Two other incidents reported out of Washington Township a month ago don’t appear related to the more recent reports.
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