MUKWONAGO - An unsettling July 11 incident, in which a man tried to lure a 10-year-old boy away from his family at the village's Indianhead Park, hasn't settled down.

Mukwonago village police are still searching for information on the man, roughly 20 to 29 years old, who reportedly approached the boy moments after his mother took another of her five children to a restroom near the park's beach about 3 p.m.

According to police, the mother saw her son walking away with the man from the picnic shelter and toward a pedestrian bridge at the Main Street park, a popular summer attraction because of the beach along the Mukwonago River. She quickly confronted the man, who she said claimed he had simply asked the boy to participate in a YouTube video.

The mother said she also lectured her son about not being lured in by strangers.

Though suspicious person reports are common and often unfounded, this one, by its nature, seemed more ominous and troublesome, Mukwonago Police Chief Dan Streit acknowledged.

"What added credence to it was that it was detailed enough," Streit said Thursday. "This happened. There's no doubt that this happened. There's no doubt that there was concern." 

The concern was great enough for the police department to take two simultaneous steps: posting the incident report on the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network to catch the attention of other law enforcement agencies and posting a summary on the department's Facebook page to inform and seek information from residents.

"The reason we put it out there was more for people to be aware of it," Streit said. "That beach is really heavily used."

One problem in the investigation is that the incident wasn't reported by the boy's mother until hours later, more to make authorities aware of what happened. That prevented police from searching the area for matching suspects and their vehicle, he added.

Regardless, police are still asking residents to report what they know.

The man in his 20s who approached the boy is described as white, 5 feet 10 inches tall, about 180 pounds, with 2- to 3-inch long dark brown wavy hair. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt at the time of the incident.

He was seen leaving with a man in his 50s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 200 pounds, with shaved bald head. He was also wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

They left in a dark gray Prius-style vehicle with unknown registration with possibly a veterans-style plate.

Streit said police have not yet received any solid leads and only phone call thus far based on the information posted. Residents can call either 911 or the nonemergency number, 262-363-6435.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.