SOUTH PASADENA — Police are seeking two men in a white Mazda following a suspicious encounter with a teenage girl Wednesday afternoon.
The 15-year-old girl was walking to South Pasadena High School for basketball practice about 2:35 p.m. when a white, 4-door Mazda sedan pulled up alongside her and stopped at Diamond Avenue and Spruce Street, South Pasadena police Sgt. Robert Bartl said.
There were two men inside, he said. Both were described as heavy-set Latino men in their 20s.
The driver pulled up the collar of his white button down shirt to conceal his face, while the passenger wore a white T-shirt and sat in the reclined front passenger seat with his arm covering his face, the sergeant said.
Bartl said the driver shouted out to the girl, “Chica, Chica, come over here. You don’t have to be scared.”
The statement had the opposite effect, and the girl ran to South Pasadena High School without responding to or making eye contact with the men in the car, Bartl said.
When she reached Oak Street, the same white car passed by and honked before continuing east toward Fremont Avenue, he said.
The girl called her mother once she reached the school, he said. The mother, in turn, notified police.
Anyone with information is asked to contact South Pasadena police at 626-403-7270.