MARBLEHEAD — Police are seeking information after a man initiated a suspicious interaction with a 10-year-old boy near the rail trail on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the boy was playing when the man, believed to be in his 40s, on a bike came off the path and asked to play ball with him. While the pair was playing ball, the man told the boy he had seen him play baseball recently, and that he knew other boys on his team.
The man then got on his bike and rode up the street, rather than returning to the path. Police said the unknown man provided the wrong names for the boy’s teammates. He also said he was watching the boy’s baseball game on a date that it had been canceled, police said.
Police are emphasizing that the man did not do or say anything sexual — he did not touch or try to touch the boy and did not say anything inappropriate.
“The comments concerning the boy’s baseball team and the fact that he was a stranger speaking to a young child who was outside alone is what was concerning to the parents and now to the police,” Marblehead police said in a statement.
Police learned about the strange interaction on Wednesday, which had occurred the previous day around 4:30 p.m. The incident took place near the old railroad right-of-way, beside the path, between Broughton Road and Temple Emanu-El, police said.
The man is described as a white man in his 40s, standing approximately 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet, and weighing 200 pounds. He has a 5 o’clock shadow, with short brown hair, but not a buzz cut. He was possibly wearing a gray shirt, gray or blue shorts, gray sneakers, and a blue or gray backpack. The backpack was described as possibly a knit woman’s style. He was reportedly riding a dark mountain bike, police said.
Anyone on the path on Tuesday afternoon who may have seen the man is urged to contact Marblehead Police at 781-631-1212.
This is not the first time police have investigated an inappropriate incident near or on the rail trail. Last October, police responded after a man had exposed himself and tried to grab a woman on the portion of the popular 4-mile trail outside Tower School, a private pre-K to 8 school on West Shore Drive. The trail connects Marblehead, Swampscott and Salem.
The woman told police the man had exposed and grabbed himself with his right hand, while trying to grab her with his left hand. After she screamed for the help, the man fled on his bike toward Salem without making physical contact or saying a word, according to court documents. Mounir Rhoulam, 39, of Swampscott, was arrested for the assault.
