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Suspected Kidnappers Arrested in New Bedford LibraryTwo homeless men—one a convicted sex offender—face attempted kidnapping charges after an 11-year-old boy told police the pair suggested that they might “snatch” him from a hallway at New Bedford (Mass.) Free Public Library September 18.Ronald Lafleur, 41, who has been convicted twice of indecent assault and battery on a minor, and Michael Veiga, 49, allegedly made the comments after staring at the boy from an elevator while he waited for his mother, the father said in the September 21 New Bedford Standard-Times. Lafleur and Veiga were arrested after a library staff member, who showed the father a state Sex Offender Registry Board notification poster identifying Lafleur, found them still in the building. Lafleur, who had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, was being held on a $25,000 cash bail, and Veiga on a $10,000 cash bail. Both men denied speaking to the boy. “The library is a place where a kid should feel very safe,” Ron Rodrigues, the father of a 10-year-old girl said in the Standard-Times. “There should be higher security here if there is even a chance of [them being kidnapped].” Library Director Theresa Coish declined to comment on the case to American Libraries because of the ongoing police investigation, but she acknowledged in the newspaper that many of the city’s homeless people spend daytime hours on the library’s front steps or in the building. Posted September 24, 2004. |
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