JOSH FENBY and Tyson Robertson were 20 cents short of the money they needed to buy lollies when a man approached the boys, aged nine and 10, and offered them the coins.
Parents in Ambarvale fear what happened next may be linked to Wednesday's discovery of a boy's naked body stuffed into a suitcase in a duck pond.
The man leaned towards Tyson as if he were going to grab him, Josh said. Tyson threw his ice-cream at the man and ran off, but the man lunged at Josh.
"He reached over to get me, so I ran," Josh said. "I screamed out 'Tyson'. Then the dude's gotten into his white van and he drove off." Josh said the windows on the van were blacked out.
Police are still trying to establish the identity and cause of death of the boy in the suitcase, who was believed to be aged between four and eight. They said the tartan suitcase had been in the pond for several days.
Josh's mother, Kylie White, said the boys were distraught and frightened after the incident. Locals say there has been a string of attempted abductions in the area.
She immediately reported the incident to police, who investigated. Two similar incidents - one before and one after - had also been reported, she said. Police are looking into warnings from local schools about a white van involved in kidnap attempts, but a spokeswoman said there had been no reports of an actual abduction.
The first thing Ms White thought of when the body was found was the man who had harassed Josh and Tyson. "I thought, 'It has to be the van man,"' she said. Tyson's mother, Jamie Towns, added: "If they don't hurry up and find him he's going to do it again."
"You don't want to let your kids out," Ms White said. "It's not safe to play on the streets any more."
It was reported that the man in the van may have had a North American accent.
Locals had seen the suitcase floating in the pond for several days. One spotted it on Sunday night. On Wednesday afternoon, children fished it out and looked inside. One of them, 12-year-old Jayden, told the Herald he originally thought it was a pig. "We got the stick and flipped it over and then we saw legs," he said.
Jayden spent yesterday morning giving a statement to police. The boy's body was wrapped, but he saw no marks. There appeared to be a fluid like blood in the folds of the plastic in which the body was wrapped.
He was shocked. "I will stay away [from the duck pond] for a while," he said.
Jayden was excitedly recounting the tale to his friends yesterday, but his mother, Jane Atherton, is concerned about the long-term effect the discovery will have on her son.
She is glad he did not see the child's face, which was covered.
Ms Atherton booked an appointment with a counsellor for Jayden. Like other local parents, she is concerned about letting him play near the pond in future. "A lot of things go through your mind. Was it a local child? Could it have been a local that did this?"
As soon as he found the body Jayden alerted the nearest neighbour, Mario Burzynski, an ambulance officer, who rang police as he ran to examine the suitcase. He said the boy's upper body was covered, but the lower half was visible through clear plastic.
"I have been in the job 10 years, but I haven't come across something like that," Mr Burzynski said. "When it happens in front of your place it's a bit of a shock."
The pond is a popular swimming and fishing spot for children.
The head of the homicide squad, Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford, said photographs of the tartan suitcase were being released in the hope someone would recognise it.
He said the missing persons unit had been unable to help identify the body. Police were asking schools about any pupils who had been absent.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/was ... ntentSwap1
