Teen Fights Off Alleged Kidnapping Attempt
H U D S O N, Fla., March 18 -- Florida teenager Ashley Schuering comes across as brave and wise beyond her years when she says she wasn't about to let herself become a kidnapping victim.
"Everybody that gets kidnapped should fight, no matter what. Don't stop fighting. Go down fighting, if anything," said 15-year-old Ashley.
The high school freshman says she fought with all her might when a Georgia man allegedly dragged her off her bicycle and toward a vehicle Tuesday.She says she wasn't about to let herself become a victim — not in the wake of the Carlie Bruscia tradedy in Sarasota, Fla., earlier this year.
"I just knew that if I didn't fight or I didn't do anything then I was gonna not come back," Ashley said.
Ashley said the man approached her while she was riding her bicycle to her cousin's house.
"I was just riding my bike like normal kids do and he came up and grabbed my left arm, pulled me off my bike and said some real obscene things to me," she said.
"When I realized he was really intoxicated, I just decided to push him, and when I pushed him he stumbled backwards," she said.
Ashley says she fled the scene and told her father, Scott Schuering, what had happened. Schuering then got in his car and drove around, looking for the man accused of attempting to kidnap his daughter. When he spotted him a few miles away from the location Ashley described, Schuering wanted to confront the man, but he called local authorities instead.
"My instinct was to retaliate but that probably wouldn't have done no good," Schuering said.
Deputies arrested 56-year-old Harold Hubert Carroll, of Temple, Ga., in the attempted abduction of Ashley. He was charged with attempted kidnapping, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Man Had Plans
Ashley says she was really scared when Carroll revealed his plans for her while he allegedly attempted to drag her into a vehicle."He said that I had nice legs and that he had a boat at Hudson Beach that was anchored that he wanted to take me to," Ashley said.
