LOUGHTON: Police search for white van men (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

It should be really easy to find someone driving a white van around here, there are hardly any.

Why not just say you are searching for a man with two legs wearing a pair of shoes.

Now then, this is just ANOTHER example of poor parenting. Why hasn't this young child been properly educated to use his common sense and eyes?
IF he had been instructed 'how to use his eyes and remember what he is actually seeing',he could have given a better slab of information to the police.
"White van" ! is about as good as janus refers too as no good at all !
Every vehicle carries a licence plate, (almost) every child has a mobile phone. Those details could have been made available to the police in say 60 seconds once the child had run off somewhere safer.
50 years ago young boys would have made a hobby of collecting car number plates and writing them down in a pocket book. Wouldn't it be a good idea now if schools & parents taught them to do the same now? What about asking the legions of schoolchildren throughout Loughton & Debden to capture any white van on their mobiles for further intelligence?

Redfox. Has it occurred to you that maybe the young lad was scared? You cant blame the parents for that if he was shaken up. Sometimes when you are shocked you don't think properly especially at a young age.
You seem to be suggesting that the victim is at fault when obviously the person at fault is the scum that is attempting to possibly harass or even abduct a child.
There are further reports from the local schools today of a man with a similar description approaching a young lady. Is she at fault as well?
The best thing for parents to do is to warn their kids that their is a wierdo or worse "on the prowl" and warn them to be careful.
Its always amazing with the amount of money spent on cctv privately and with public money that these people are not caught on any cameras.
If he didn't have a tax disk or had parked on a yellow line I have no doubt they would have him in cuffs by now.
Langston RD is home to the Bank of England and many other businesses. Its amazing that its obviously not covered by security cameras, maybe the boy assumed it was? Most people would.