HOUSTON - The Houston Police Department is investigating a report of an attempted child abduction at the Houston Zoo.
The incident in question happened Wednesday morning during a Humble elementary school’s 1st grade field trip.
Desairay Exom, 6, told her parents she was approached by a man after she got separated from her class while feeding the giraffes.
“Grabbed her by the arm and he said, ‘If you don’t come home with me, then I’m going to hurt you,” explained Randy Exom, Desairay's father.
Randy added when his daughter screamed, the man tried to put his hand over her mouth but she was able to get away.
"Just knowing that she was there and afraid and that happened to her, brought tears to my eyes." he said.
Desairay told her parents when she found her class, she reported what happened to the chaperone, however, that chaperone never reported the incident.
When the little girl got home, she told her parents who then reached out to the school and the zoo’s security.
According to Exom, after scanning through surveillance tapes, security found a man that fit the stranger’s description. The Houston Police Department has since taken over the investigation.
“You have an issue now,” says Exom to whoever this man is. “This is not something that you can just get away with. I don’t know if it’s been a reoccurring thing for him… he’ll know, “Hey! I better watch it.”
Exom is grateful he taught his daughter about stranger danger and is proud she remembered what to do.
“I just came in and started kissing all over her and gave her a big hug and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to take care of it.’”
On Thursday evening, the zoo’s security director called Exom to say it appears the man in question was with another man, according to Exom.
So far, police have not released a description of the man in the video.