A man has been arrested in Nebraska over the alleged abduction of a 13-year-old boy.
Aaron Zeman, 26, was taken into custody by the Grand Island Police Department after a gas station attendant reported his vehicle on Wednesday. Officers found Mr Zeman, who also goes by the names Hunter Fox and Tadashi Kojima, and the victim inside the car, ABC affiliate NTV reported.
An Amber Alert had been issued for the teen in Layton City, Utah, after he reportedly left his parent’s home late on Monday night to meet Mr Zeman, local police said in a statement.
The victim’s parents had told authorities that their son was having inappropriate sexual conversations with a man he met online while playing Roblox three weeks before he was kidnapped, an affidavit obtained by NTV stated.
Mr Zeman, originally from Arizona, has been charged with kidnapping and resisting arrest.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Grand Island police responded to a call for a suspicious Toyota Avalon at a Git ‘N Split gas station in Grand Island.
Mr Zeman reportedly parked his vehicle before turning around and going the wrong way. He then returned to the gas station.
Responding officers ran the licence plate and found it was linked to an Amber Alert issued out of Layton City.
When he was ordered to exit the vehicle by police, Mr Zeman refused to do so, NTV reported.
A close friend of the family had told Fox that Mr Zeman asked the teen to bring his passport with him before meeting him on Monday.
The suspect was believed to be headed to Arizona or Texas.
“You have an older man posing to be someone else, confusing a 13-year-old minor things that he’s not aware of in life,” Beth Cooper told the network. “He doesn’t understand yet why when somebody asks you to leave your house, you don’t go.”
She added: “He comes from a very loving household, safe environment, he’s grown up with two loving parents his entire life.
“This just isn’t one of those scenarios that he’s trying to run away from a bad home. He was manipulated by someone pretending to be someone they were not.”
Layton City police said on Tuesday that they were working on reuniting the victim with his family.
A joint investigation by Layton City and Grand Island police is ongoing.
