Police: Man Accused Of Abducting, Assaulting Teen Thought She Was 18

KITTANNING (KDKA) - Sheriff's deputies converged at a Sheetz outside Kittanning on Wednesday evening.

That's when they apprehended Zachary Flickinger, 20, and they found a 13-year-old girl. She was safe. But, now police say the suspect may have been the victim of a lie.

Flickinger is accused of starting an online relationship with the girl early this year. According to police records, he agreed to pick up the girl at her home in West Kittanning and run away with her. By the time police caught up to him, they say there had been sexual contact.

"There was no force involved, it was just a matter of a mistake because of age, with her saying she was one age when she wasn't" said Sergeant William Evans with the East Franklin Police.

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Officers say the suspect thought he was picking up an 18-year- old girl, but that she lied, she's only 13. Even so, Flickinger is facing charges.

"A lesson to her to make sure who's she's talking to. And a lesson to the men out there too, to make sure what they're doing," Evans said.

It's one more example of young people making bad decisions on the internet.

They can connect on their cell phones, the can connect on their computers, their tablets, even their x-boxes. You can't be with the children 24 hours a day to monitor what they're doing," Evans said.

Flickinger has a preliminary hearing on Feb. 29. That's when we might learn a lot more about how he ended up with a 13-year-old girl at a gas station outside Kittanning.