LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC — For the third time in three weeks, a Midlands area girl walking home from her school bus stop has been approached by a stranger trying to pick her up.

Lexington County authorities are looking for a man who may have tried to pick up a 9-year-old South Congaree girl who was walking home from her school bus stop Thursday afternoon.

The girl told investigators the stranger was parked in the driveway of her Midway Street home when she arrived around 3 p.m. She ran to a neighbor’s house for help when he got out of his car and started to walk toward her.

The man was described as 18-25 years old, with brown hair, a mustache and goatee. He was driving a late model burgundy 4-door sedan, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said in a news release.

While some of the characteristics of this man are similar to the description of a man who approached a 14-year-old girl on the Edmund Highway Feb. 28 – the car was red with four doors and the man wore a goatee – authorities do not believe this is the same person.

“The man on the Edmund highway was about 40-years-old and heavy, this man was young and skinny,” sheriff’s department spokesman Eric Murrah said.

In Richland County, a 14-year-old girl was approached March 13 at the intersection of Broad River Road and Hufstetler Drive, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.

The girl told investigators that a man drove up to her in a burgundy two-door truck, rolled down his window and asked if she wanted a ride. When she said no and turned to run, she said the man got out of his truck and chased her. She was able to get home, lock the doors and call her family.

Authorities are looking for a man in that case that the teen described as “heavy-set, dark-skinned, bald and between 50 and 55 years old,” Lott said.

Authorities are continuing the search for the suspect in the latest case and ask anyone who may have seen a suspicious person or car matching the description given by the girl to call the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at (803)785-8230 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC.