Harold Porter - Repeat Sex Offender - Victim saved with help from bystander

Police now say a Swanton man charged with attempting kidnapping also tried to abduct another woman in 2001.

Harold Porter, 45, of Swanton, was arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges. His lengthy criminal record includes sex crimes as well as an attempted kidnapping charge in 2001 after he tried unsuccessfully to nab a woman off the streets of Swanton in broad daylight.

Police arrested Porter this time after they say he tried to drag a woman into his pickup on Colchester Avenue in Burlington. A resident helped save the woman. Police say they caught up with Porter thanks to a tip from a car dealer who recognized the description of his truck on the news. There are only a handful of those style trucks in Vermont and the dealer had sold two of them to Porter.

Burlington Police Det. Art Cyr said, "We don't know his intentions. We don't know how he picked her or what it was about her that made him decide this was the person he was going to grab."

Porter was not on the Vt. Sex Offender Registry website because he was still under department of corrections supervision for the 2001 charge.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte