Police: Man no danger to children

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   SOLEBURY — Police say the elderly man suspected of attempting to lure a child with the offer of a dog is not a danger to anyone but himself.
   The 81-year-old man, who police would not identify, likely is suffering from dementia.
   The man lives alone and is “a bit of a recluse,” according to Chief Dominick Bellizzie.
   He has no criminal record and no record of activity as a sexual predator.
   ”He has no record at all,” the chief said.
   Police referred the man to the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging.
   A 10-year-old boy, who was first approached by the man Sept. 26, spotted the white-haired man again in his neighborhood on Lower Mountain Road earlier this month. Police then asked the public to be on the alert for the man and his damaged red sedan.
   The man continued to drive the same route, police theorize, because it is the only way he knows how to reach a grocery store.
   Someone spotted him and called police with his license plate number.
   A Solebury detective interviewed the man several times. When asked about a dog, he readily discusses a German shepherd he found when he was 15 years old, Chief Bellizzie said.
   When the detective visited him for the second time, the man did not recall a police visit that occurred just the previous day, according to the chief.