Reniah Eubanks said Tuesday she knew something was wrong when a man she didn't know offered to give her a ride home, and she's crediting another stranger with keeping her safe.
The seventh grader was on the 7000 block of North Paulina Street on Sunday afternoon when she says a man in an SUV tried to get her into the vehicle.
"And I looked at him like, 'Why would you want to take me home when I don't even know you?" she recalled to reporters on Tuesday.
Eubanks went inside a Rogers Park neighborhood grocery store to ask for help. That's when another neighborhood woman stepped up to help. Eubanks said the woman, identified by the Chicago Tribune as Betty Brewer, went outside to confront the man. She also got his license plate number and alerted police.
Eubanks later identified the man as Abraham Pierre. The 52-year-old, of the 1300 block of West Touhy Avenue, now faces one count of felony child abduction/luring and was being held Tuesday on $100,000 bail, according to a Cook County state's attorney's spokeswoman.
Eubanks' aunt, Rosalind Porter, had a message for the attempted captor:
"Gotcha, sucker," she said, adding: "I'm so happy that he's off the streets."
