By Adam Ghassemi
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. - Hendersonville Police have arrested a man they believe was responsible for trying to kidnap 16-year-old Mary Anderson as she was on her way to work Wednesday afternoon.
Police arrested 28-year-old Celio B. Hathaway.
Officials said Anderson was approached by a man outside the Demos' restaurant on Indian Lake Boulevard around 4 p.m.
"I just barely looked up and saw him and he was pointing and so I was like oh, my car and got out," she said Thursday.
Anderson said Hathaway asked if the restaurant was hiring and for their number. While she was distracted he made his move.
"I start flipping through my phone to find the number and that's when he grabbed my arm and said can you come help me look in my truck and tried to pull me into his car," Anderson said.
The arrest was made possible because an alert employee took a photo of the truck as it fled the scene. The truck was later found in a nearby parking lot.
"I mean he's been here three times and that time could have been, you know, Mary's abduction," said manager Brianna Spencer, who used her cell phone to capture the image.
News of the attempted abduction hit Anderson's mother, Tori Lawson, particularly hard.
"I take responsibility for not telling her this is how they play the game at this age, you know. You don't just have to be on vacation on the beach in another country. It's two miles from our home. It's very scary," she said Thursday.
Lawson is a teenage rape victim herself who didn't tell anyone back then. Today she's comfortable talking about her attack.
"I told Mary I believe this happened because it's going to stop with you. And he's not going to hurt someone else. Rape someone else; murder someone else I mean who knows what he might do. I think it ended with Mary," Lawson said.
Anderson knows there's an important lesson from this all teenagers should know.
"We're just not wary enough of people. We want to trust and we think that we are invincible and that nothing bad is going to happen because we're 16 and we know and we got it figured out, you know what I mean and we don't," Anderson said.
Police also believe Hathaway was involved in another incident in which a juvenile was sexually assaulted on February 23.
Hathaway was out on bond for a previous incident that happened at the Hendersonville Walmart in September 2011.
Police said he may face other charges as the investigation continues.
Hathaway was held at the Sumner County jail on $250,000 bond.
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Celio Hathaway
