Mentor man accused of luring kids into woods to find cellphone, taking off clothes

MENTOR, Ohio - A 53-year-old man from Mentor is accused of luring young children into the woods to help him find a cellphone – but police said his intentions were a little different.

The alleged incident happened at about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday on Avon Drive in Mentor.

Mentor police said Kevin Gallagher apparently approached a group of three boys and one girl – ages 6 to 10 years old – and asked them to help him find his phone that he lost a week before.

The children went with Gallagher into the woods – and they split up. Police said Gallagher asked an 8-year-old boy to go with him, and the rest went another direction. According to officers, the boy urinated in the woods and Gallagher watched him.

The boy told police that Gallagher then told him he was going to do some sexual things to him and rape him. Gallagher took off his shirt and started taking off his pants when one of the kids’ mothers started yelling because the group was not supposed to be in the woods, Mentor police said.

Gallagher took off, but was located at a nearby house short time later and arrested.

Police charged him with three counts of criminal child enticement, one count of sexual connotation and one count of aggravated menacing. There were only three counts because one of the parents did not want to prosecute.

Officers said Gallagher did not touch the boy before being scared away.