PERRYSBURG, Ohio — A now-viral social media post warning area parents to keep an eye out for "stranger danger" on a Perrysburg playground is false, according to multiple sources.
Perrysburg police and a city official debunked the post, which alleges an adult man was interacting inappropriately with children at Fort Imagination Playground. The post calls on parents to be on the lookout for the individual, detailing an interpretation of events that authorities say is false.
WTOL 11 reached out to the Perrysburg Police Department and the city of Perrysburg regarding the post and received reports filed by officers and a statement from the city on Tuesday.
Officers responded to a call of a suspicious person at Fort Imagination Playground around 7:52 p.m. Monday, according to two incident reports. Dispatch told officers that the caller's husband attempted to speak with the person, but they only used hand gestures in response.
The person is identified by police as 16 years old, and not someone in their 30s as the social media post alleges.
They told the officers that the reason why they didn't talk to anyone is because they prefer not to talk. They said it's just easier not to talk, and that they have autism and are not good at communicating. Because of this, the teen was communicating using typed messages on his phone.
They said they were pushing other children on the carousel when a 14-year-old called him weird. They wrote a message on their phone to the girls on the carousel, which they showed to police. Neither message contained anything inappropriate or obscene in nature, according to the police report.
A group of people approached the officers while they were speaking with the 16-year-old. The 14-year-old who called them weird was with the group and gave police information that matched what the 16-year-old had said.
There is no mention of any angry gestures or of the 16-year-old being told to leave by adults as the social media post claims.
A city official and the police report mention that the teen slapped the 14-year-old on the back for misusing the carousel. The 14-year-old's mother did not want any charges to be filed as her child was not injured. Police will not refer the incident to the juvenile prosecutor.
Officers and the city official said the 16-year-old lives in a group home and that their caretaker was also at the playground. The caretaker told police he would speak further with the teen and took them back to their group home.
Based on information from both police reports and the city official, this was not a case of "stranger danger" and WTOL 11 has verified the post is a false alarm.