ORANGE PARK, Fla. – A teenager came to a 10-year-old boy's rescue Saturday after a possible abduction in Clay County.
Last week, Ricky Hart, who plays football at Oakleaf High School, and Kendra McNeal's son, who just started fifth grade, didn't know each other.
But the two quickly became acquainted Saturday when Hart said the boy frantically came running up to him on Highland Mill Lane and told him a stranger tried to take him.
McNeal said her son and his friends were playing hide-and-go-seek in one of the neighborhood's cul-de-sacs when a strange man on a motorcycle approached her son.
"(He) circled around twice, came up to him and said, 'Come with me,'" McNeal said.
When he saw the fear in the boy's eyes, Hart said, he knew he had to help.
"I just walked him home and when I got into his little cul-de-sac, a bunch of his friends were out there playing hide-and-seek, so I told them to go inside too because, obviously, it wasn't safe," Hart said.
McNeal said as soon as her son told her what happened, she immediately tracked down Hart to thank him.
“I thank God that he was there to help him and that he knew to run and do the right thing and that the boy saw that he made it home safely," McNeal said.
Even though Hart didn’t have on his football pads when they first met, the boy has a new friend for life who he knows will keep blocking the bad guys.
Another neighbor did see the same man on the motorcycle that day, according to a Clay County Sheriff's Office incident report.
The report said the man, who was riding a late-1980s Honda motorcycle, was believed to be wearing a black Salt Life T-shirt, a black helmet and red gloves.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 904-264-6512.