According to the timely notification Mercyhurst College students received on Monday, a female student was nearly abducted on Saturday on the corner of East 38th Street and Pine Avenue.

A male approached her as she was walking to her apartment. He had a knife in his back pocket, and he asked, “Are you scared yet?” The man is a white male in his early 20s and is approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. He was wearing a dark colored leather jacket and jeans.

Police and Safety Chief Robert Kuhn encourages students to travel in pairs when going to CVS.

Students who are signed up for the E2Campus Emergency Messaging System received a text message on Monday to inform them about the abduction attempt.

The text read, “A Timely Notification has been added to the my. mercyhurst.edu site and sent to your Mercyhurst email. Please …”

Vice President of Student Life Dr. Gerard Tobin said this message was sent out so students would check their e-mail. The text did not include details of the incident because texts limit the number of characters that can be used, and Tobin said he was worried a brief message that was not specific would cause students to think there was “imminent danger” on campus. If there was imminent danger on campus, the message would relay the danger instead of telling students to check the Mercyhurst Portal.

The text was sent out about 36 hours after the incident. Tobin said he is working to find a better way to get emergency text messages to students on time.