A man was arrested on molestation charges after he used his "lost cat" to approach a group of children and then follow a girl into her Lake Mary home, police said Monday.
Paul David Ocallaghan, 50, was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under the age of 12, luring and enticing a child under the age of 12 and residential burglary.
Lake Mary police said Ocallaghan approached a group of children Friday, March 27, in the Manderley subdivision.
He told the children he was looking for his lost cat and asked them if they would get into his car to pick up his son from school.
During the course of the interaction, police said Ocallaghan molested a victim and then followed her into her home. The victim's mother was inside the home at the time of the incident and asked the man to leave.
"There's a possibility that this is not the first time that he has done something like this," Lake Mary police officer Bianca Gillett said. "We're encouraging anyone that has had similar occurrences with Mr. Ocallaghan to please contact the Lake Mary Police Department."
Residents in the area are concerned this might not be the first time Ocallaghan has tried to lure children.
"(I'm) very scared," said Rhomell Calara, who lives down the street from Ocallaghan. Calara's son frequently would play with Ocallaghan's son. "You just don't know who to trust nowadays."
Monica Heuser, another neighbor, added: "A very scary, creepy feeling." Heuser said Ocallaghan came to her door late at night asking to come inside her home.
"I'm like, 'I don't know you, who are you?'" Heuser said. "And he said he was my neighbor from across the street. And he's like, 'Um, your neighbor told me that you had children.' I said, 'No, I don't have any children.' For all I know, he went door to door looking for somebody that would actually let him in and see if they had any kids."
Ocallaghan was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, where he remained Monday night on $100,000.
Anyone with more information on this incident is asked to call the Lake Mary Police Department at 407-585-1315 or email Detective Claudia Umana at cumana@lakemaryfl.com.