Police are probing claims that a creep put on a young girl’s voice to try to lure a group of young boys onto a woodland path in Callander.
The parent of one of the boys took to social media to detail the bizarre incident which took place at around 7.30pm on Sunday evening near to McLaren Leisure centre.
In a Facebook post, the concerned parent said: “Please watch your kids if they are out in Callander, my boy and his friends have just been approached by a man who was in the woods at the side of the McLaren Centre screaming help in a girl’s voice.
“When the boys ran off he then told them to come and see what he had...hand in pocket and they think it was a knife.”
The youngsters described the man as being around six feet tall, possibly bald and had a strong Scottish accent. He’s estimated to be in his mid-30s and was wearing a tracksuit with an orange zip.
A Police Scotland spokesperson told the Observer: “We received a report of a man acting suspiciously near McLaren Community Leisure Centre in Callander at around 7.30pm on Sunday, January 23.
“Enquiries into the incident are ongoing.”
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It’s the latest in a string of incidents in woodlands in rural Stirling.
Last month, we told how police were probing “suspicious incidents” in Callander after a woman and her daughter were followed by a man “lurking” behind them on a cycle track.
Officers were looking into the claims that left the pair “spooked” and say that two separate incidents have been reported.
The woman took to social media to detail the incident. She posted: ‘I took a walk with my daughter tonight and walking along Keltie Bridge direction past the greenhouses and done the loop back along the forest track. We took a wrong turn and turned around and a man was lurking behind us. He turned around and really slowly walked towards the road. He kept looking back at us.’
The pair then went to a nearby property and a resident there walked back along the path with them.
Police say that they received the report on the cycle track between Craigard Road and Ancaster Road at around 9.45pm on Friday, December 17, and at Keltie Bridge at around 8.30pm the same night.
It came less than a week after police began investigating an incident in which a woman was chased through woodland in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.
The woman had been running through the park when she was followed by a man.
She posted on Facebook: “I’ve just been out running around Lochan Spling (ran from the village along the Duchray Road) and had a man step out from the trees and chase me along the track. He stood in the middle of the track as I ran past him then sprinted up behind me, I turned direction and he followed.
“I’m not a fast runner he could have easily outrun me but was deliberately on my shoulder until he slowed. I ended up having to run into the woods and hide behind some wood bags until he continued along the side of Lochan Spling.”
The woman added that hours after the incident she was left “shaken”.
The man was described as white, aged in his early 30s, approximately six feet tall, of slim build with short blonde or brown spiked hair. He was wearing a green or beige waterproof deer stalker type jacket, dark trousers, boots and had a pink head torch.
Police, at that time, believed the incident may have been linked to a similar event that occurred back in October.
