NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
October 4, 2007
Contact: Michele Nicholson
Public Information Officer
(850) 651-7420
FORT WALTON BEACH MAN CHARGED WITH FALSE IMPRISONMENT
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has charged a Fort Walton Beach
man with False Imprisonment of a Child under the age of 13 in connection with an
incident Wednesday morning.
38-year old Loren “Chris” Preciado of 703D Terrance Court was
arrested after investigators were able to identify him as the man who picked up
a 7-year old girl as she walked to the bus stop on Yancey Street in Fort Walton
Beach Wednesday. The child says the man offered her a ride to school. She got
into his car, thinking he was a relative.
The
child says he never took her to her school but instead drove around town. She
was later dropped off near the Country Corner store on Lewis Turner Boulevard,
where another man saw her crying and took her to the store to contact deputies.
The child had also told investigators that the suspect at one point
pulled into a gas station, locked the doors, and told her to stay inside, later
coming back with a bottle of water and a Sprite. Investigators were able to
locate images from surveillance footage at the Fill Ups gas station at 1323
Lewis Turner Boulevard that matched the victim’s description.
They then developed Preciado as a suspect and took him into custody late
Wednesday night.
Preciado told investigators he was trying to help the girl, but
couldn’t find her school so he dropped her off by a gas station where there
were a lot of people.