Police apprehend suspect in attempted kidnapping

Police have arrested a 69-year-old homeless man, Houshang Hakimi, in connection with an attempted kidnapping in Astoria last week.

Hakimi alleged tried to lure a 12-year-old girl into his SUV last week but fled the scene when the girl’s babysitter approached the vehicle, police say.

“He told her he knows me somehow or that he’s a friend of her father,” the girl’s father told CBS. “So, she declined and then he said, ‘I have some candy for you.'”

Hakimi has been charged with acting in a manner that endangers a child less than 17 years old and failing to report a change of address as a sex offender.