The man in question drove his van around the Muide-Meulestede district in Ghent on Saturday evening. His children had lost track of the hour and should have been home by now. As a precaution, he went looking for himself. When a local resident saw the man in his van near groups of children, he decided to contact the police. For example, a search notice is currently circulating in the aftermath of a recent incident in Deinze. There an older man had approached a young girl from his van.
The local resident thought that the father could be the man in the robot photo. He was on the safe side. The police arrived on the spot and arrested him, after which an interrogation followed. It soon became apparent that it was a misunderstanding. “The person in question therefore has absolutely nothing to do with it,” emphasizes police spokesman Dirk De Sutter. “He was just looking for his kids.”
Videos and photos of the father are now circulating on Facebook, just like his license plate. So that information is wrong. The official search notice, with the correct information, can be found on the website of the federal police.