Police were interviewing him, reviewing area surveillance video and looking for witnesses among the crowd of shoppers and businesses in an attempt to corroborate his account.
The investigation continued through the afternoon into early evening Saturday with no results, authorities said.
The youngster told police the passenger got out of the parked truck, extended his arm and said "give me your hand" on Finnerty Place near Washington Town Center around 11:45 a.m., Capt. John Calamari said.
The teen said he refused and the man stepped toward him and asked again.
The boy then ran to join his friends at the Fresh Grocer shopping center on Pascack Road, the captain said.
"No contact was made," Calamari said the boy told police.
The passenger and driver were in a light gray or beige pickup with an open trailer on the back filled with landscaping equipment, the teen told police. Both are Hispanic, he said.
An EMS unit was summoned to check out the boy, who appeared fine.
Emerson police, hearing the alert, stopped a truck that, in the end, wasn't the vehicle.
The search for the truck continued Saturday afternoon.
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Boyd A. Loving took the photo and contributed to this report.
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