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The good news is there aren’t lots of shady men driving around Calgary trying to lure innocent kids into their cars, offering candy or a chance to pat a puppy.

Thankfully, while such worrying instances do occur, they are rare – much less frequent than most people believe. Reports of such happenings are not quite so uncommon, however.

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That’s because, like it or not, kids sometimes lie. They make things up, trying to get out of trouble or to bring attention to themselves for the most appropriately childish of reasons.

Police know this only too well, and while that doesn’t stop them investigating such reports of lurking or luring strangers with appropriate speed and vigour — because sometimes, they are true — they don’t throw experience and a healthy dose of skepticism out the cruiser window.

So, back in the day, when an allegation of such an attempt was announced, an experienced police reporter would chat off the record with investigating officers to get a better sense of just how big to play this news – a reply that it was probably best not to hold the front page quite yet, would be a good indicator all was not as first appeared.