A 14-year-old arrested for an attempted abduction near the South Scranton Intermediate School Monday was recruiting other juveniles to steal cars, according to Scranton police.<\/p>\n
The juvenile\u2019s family had just moved here from Ohio, where the youth had a history of stealing cars and recruiting others to join him, police said.<\/p>\n
He is charged with theft of a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property, fleeing and eluding and prowling at night.<\/p>\n
![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/STT-L-ABDUCTION-02-1.jpg\")
Scranton police located a silver Hyundai Elantra, with tinted windows, that was reported stolen from 500 block of Cedar Avenue, on Monday afternoon. A male driver with a black face mask was wanted for an attempted abduction on the 500 block of East Elm Street and in front of South Scranton Intermediate School.<\/p>\n
Following the abduction attempt, the department ramped up security at all district buildings and asked parents pick up their children at dismissal time, if possible.<\/p>\n
Police soon identified a Hyundai Elantra as a stolen vehicle involved in the attempted abduction and were able to obtain a description of the suspect. At about 9 p.m., patrol officers spotted a teenager matching the suspect\u2019s description.<\/p>\n
When the police approached the 14-year-old, he fled, but was soon apprehended.<\/p>\n
The juvenile initially refused to provide identifying information, but officers were able to determine his identify.<\/p>\n
The Scranton Police Department\u2019s Major Crimes Unit interviewed family members, who cooperated with officers.<\/p>\n
Police\u00a0 recovered the clothing worn by the suspect and caught on surveillance video.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/STT-L-ARREST-0109-01.jpg\")
A juvenile was arrested after attempted abduction Monday. Police released information and clothing seized as evidence. (GIBBONS)<\/p>\n
Investigators learned the family recently moved here from Dayton, Ohio, and the suspect had a history of motor vehicle theft. Officers said the youth was attempting to recruit other juveniles to steal cars, as he had done in Ohio.<\/p>\n
Police didn\u2019t name the juvenile. He was not enrolled in school at the time of the incident. He being held in a secure facility in Northampton County.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Brian Gallagher questioned why the juvenile was not enrolled in school or being overseen by his parents at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only so much law enforcement, school districts and service providers can do,\u201d he said. \u201cParents must be accountable. Intervention must start at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Scranton police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 14-year-old arrested for an attempted abduction near the South Scranton Intermediate School Monday was recruiting other juveniles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[202,201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-81370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}