Deputies Looking for Man Who Offered Ride to Girl, 14

Lexington County deputies are looking for a man who asked a 14-year-old girl to get into his car Wednesday at a bus stop near Lexington.

When the 14-year-old girl got off a public school bus at a stop on Edmund Highway around 12:20 p.m., the man, who was sitting in a red car, rolled down his window and asked her if she needed a ride, according to an incident report. 

The girl did not recognize the man, so she told him she didn't need a ride, according to the report. The man then got out of his vehicle. The girl told deputies she thought he was going to try to make her get in the car, so she ran toward her house.

She heard the man close his car door, according to the report, and saw him driving toward her. 

When she made it home, she called her mother and told her what happened. The girl told school resource officers with the Cayce Department of Public Safety and the Lexington County Sheriff's Department about the incident.

The girl told deputies the man was a white, heavy-set, older man with shoulder-length hair and a mullet cut. He also had a long, gray beard and spoke in a deep voice. The girl told deputies he was wearing glasses and a white, collared shirt. 

The car the man was driving was a red, older-model, four-door ar with a long and round-shaped front end. The headlight on the front passenger's side of the car was broken. A think piece of black tape was placed across the middle of the car's rear windshield.

Deputies conducted patrols in the area Wednesday to try to locate the man, but did not find him, said Maj. John Allard with the sheriff's department.

Anyone with information about the incident or the man should contact the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at 803-785-8230 or Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

Citizens also can report information anonymously by accessing the crime tip link on the sheriff’s department web site (www.lexingtonsheriff.com).