Note: This story has been updated with additional information.
An incident involving schoolgirls walking along Easton Road in Hellertown may have been innocent in nature but is nevertheless being treated as suspicious, Saucon Valley School District Supt. Dr. Monica McHale-Small said in an email to parents Tuesday afternoon.
According to the email, three high school students were on their way to school when they “were approached by an older bearded gentleman wearing an orange shirt and driving a gray pickup truck. The man honked and asked the girls if they need a ride. The girls said ‘no’ and he proceeded to drive off.”
McHale-Small said the incident took place on Easton Road near High Street.
“The students informed their bus driver, who in turn notified the Hellertown Police of the incident,” she said. “This may well have been an innocent situation but, in the interest of the safety of our students, we are making everyone aware.”
In a news release issued late Tuesday afternoon, police described the man and his vehicle in additional detail, saying he is in “his late 40s or early 50s with brown eyes and salt and pepper hair.”
The man was driving “a medium gray…Dodge or Chevrolet pickup truck with tinted windows,” police said, when the girls were approached between 7:12 and 7:20 a.m.
An investigation revealed that last week another girl was approached by a similar-looking man in a vehicle matching the description provided by Tuesday’s witnesses in the area of Front Street, Hellertown.
The number for the Hellertown Police is 610-838-7040 and the Northampton County non-emergency number is 610-759-2200.
The intersection of Easton Road (left) and High Street in Hellertown
