"Very poor judgment:" Glendale police say man's good intentions were misunderstood

GLENDALE -- The man who approached a young child tells FOX6 News he had good intentions. Glendale police are calling it all a misunderstanding. But the child who ran to get his dad when a stranger approached is still being commended.

In the quiet Crestwood subdivision in Glendale, some thought a child predator might have been lurking. This, after a man in a truck approached an eight-year-old boy in his yard and offered him a baseball. The child did what he was taught -- and ran to tell his dad instead of getting near the stranger's truck.

When police issued a composite sketch of the "suspect" and explained what happened, that person saw the story and went straight to the Glendale Police Department. It turns out, the man was a new neighbor who says he was just being friendly.

"Very poor judgment on his part . Very good judgment, the child, who did everything right," said Joel Dhein of the Glendale Police Department.

FOX6 News spoke with the man with the baseball. He says he found the ball and happened to have it in his truck. When he saw his eight-year-old neighbor playing baseball in his yard, he stopped to offer it.

"He admitted the mistake, a hard lesson learned obviously; a lot of police resources used. The good -- the umbrella is that we cleared this situation up," Dhein said.

Before he went to the police Thursday night, the one-time suspect introduced himself to his new neighbor -- with the explanation.

"The moral of the story is the child did everything right. As adults, you have to look at the big picture here. If people don't know who you are, you have to go through the parents -- not the child," Dhein said.

The man with the baseball actually has a child of his own. He and his wife wanted to clear things up as soon as they heard about the stranger danger in his neighborhood -- and he realized he was the guy in the sketch.