A man from Beach Park in suburban Lake County is facing charges after allegedly kidnapping three children from Ohio.
According to police, Michael Negron, 19, had been communicating with a 12-year-old girl from Middleton, Ohio, for several weeks before driving to meet her.
Negron allegedly spent several days in Middleton before leaving with the girl, her 14-year-old sister and a 15-year-old boy Friday night, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.
One of the girls alerted her parents and gave a description of the car they were in, the sheriff’s office said. A cellphone tracker found they were in the 10600 block of West Yorkhouse Road in Beach Park.
Deputies tracked the vehicle, and they were found at a gas station Saturday afternoon near Lewis Avenue and Wadsworth Road, the sheriff’s office said.
Negron was charged with kidnapping and child endangerment, the sheriff’s office said. The children were unharmed, police say.