The boys thought they were getting a good deal on an iPhone. But it put them in danger. It all started at Deerbrook Mall.
Shirley Bryer is emotional and shaken by what happened to her grandson and his friend, but this grandmother says she wants to share her story, so that other families will be aware of what happened.
Byer has to keep reminding herself that her 15-year-old grandson Odie is OK, because what happened to him at Deerbrook Mall could have ended much differently.
"Oh my God, it was horrible," Bryer said.
On June 11, Odie and a 14-year-old friend were visiting from Louisiana and had gone to the mall with Odie's mother. They wandered away from her, and at a cell phone kiosk they say a man approached them offering to sell them an iPhone for $60.
"He said let's get out of the surveillance camera and walk to the car," Bryer explained. "That's how they got to the car. He said get in."
The Harris County Sheriff's Office confirms the boys were taken off site to a subdivision where they were robbed and abandoned.
Bryer said, "Before they knew it, they were in a subdivision off Aldine Bender. He said get out, give me the money."
The pair called Odie's mother and a good Samaritan gave her directions from the mall. Bryer said her grandson learned a critical lesson.
She recalled, "'Granny,' he said, 'I'll never get in the car with anybody again.'"
But she has this message for other families.
"Alert to parents, you can't be more than five feet away from their children, at all times, because they can be lured."
The Harris County Sheriff's Office says the suspect is described as a black male with light facial hair. He was wearing a Texans shirt, cargo shorts and a Texans baseball cap. He was driving a four-door Nissan at the time.
Mall management says this was an isolated incident and they're cooperating with law enforcement.
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