A Willow Springs man is facing two counts of attempted kidnapping after police say he approached two young girls within minutes of each other at a Hickory Hills shopping center, chasing one of them on foot before bystanders helped her get away. Nicholas P. Hayes, 28, was identified through surveillance footage and witness interviews in the days following the Tuesday afternoon incidents near 95th Street and Roberts Road.
Police responded to the shopping center at 12:30 p.m. after a report that a girl had been approached by a man demanding she get into his car, according to chicagotribune.com. When the girl told the man she was a minor, he got out of his vehicle and chased her on foot until a bystander stepped in, the outlet reported. Investigators say a second girl, 14, was approached at the same shopping center later that same day and asked to get into the man's vehicle, but he left after she called for help.
How Investigators Tracked Down a Suspect
According to ABC7 Chicago, police tracked down Hayes a short time later in Willow Springs after surveillance footage captured him driving a silver SUV. The station reports that Hayes approached the two girls in the SUV, telling them repeatedly to get inside before one of the girls escaped on foot with help from bystanders.
Surveillance footage showing the silver Hyundai SUV Hayes was driving played a central role in the investigation, the same chicagotribune.com account notes. Witness interviews, additional surveillance video, interviews conducted by the All Our Children's Advocacy Center, photo lineups and an interview with Hayes himself all helped investigators identify him as the offender, per the report.
Police Chief Calls Him a Threat
Hickory Hills Police Chief Adam Gulczynski said he considered Hayes a danger to the community because of his actions that day. “I would consider him a threat to the community,” Gulczynski said, according to the Tribune's report. Police also say Hayes was wanted on two separate warrants from the Naperville and Waukegan police departments for public indecency at the time of his arrest.
Hayes was charged with two counts of attempted kidnapping, and he was scheduled to appear for a detention hearing Friday at the Cook County Courthouse in Bridgeview, per the same account. The outcome of that hearing, including whether Hayes was detained or released on bond, has not been confirmed. Under Illinois law, kidnapping is defined by 720 ILCS 5/10-1, while attempt charges fall under 720 ILCS 5/8-4 of the state's criminal code.
Details of the charging documents, including the precise statutory subsections cited in the case, have not been made public. The identities and exact ages of the two girls involved have also not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the two encounters were connected beyond occurring at the same shopping center on the same afternoon.
