STANTON, Kentucky — A 67-year-old Stanton man is in the Powell County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash bond after police say he grabbed a 12-year-old girl by the arm inside a grocery store on Tuesday evening and tried to lead her out the front door, telling her, according to police, “You're coming with me.”
Source: WYMT via K105
The Stanton Police Department said Eugene Rauch, 67, of Stanton was arrested on Tuesday night, November 10, and charged with attempted kidnapping of a minor. The charge is an allegation: Rauch has not been convicted of anything in this case, no formal court outcome has been reported, and he is presumed innocent unless a court decides otherwise. Awaaz Punjab is not naming or identifying the girl, in line with its policy of never identifying a minor in a case like this — she is described only by her age and her town.
What police say happened inside the Sav-A-Lot
The incident happened on Tuesday evening, November 10, at approximately 6:00 p.m. at the Sav-A-Lot grocery store in Stanton, the seat of Powell County in eastern Kentucky, WYMT reported. According to the Stanton Police Department, Rauch grabbed the girl by the arm inside the store and tried to guide her towards the front door and out of the store.
Police said the girl resisted and tried to get away. As she struggled, a store sign fell — and at that point, police said, Rauch let go of her arm. He then left the scene before officers arrived. No injury to the girl was reported in the police account carried by WYMT and K105, and police have not said that Rauch knew the girl or her family. Investigators have not publicly described a motive, and none should be assumed.
Before the arrest, the Stanton Police Department posted a surveillance photo of the suspect on social media and asked the public for help identifying him — a step small departments in Kentucky routinely use when a suspect leaves a scene before officers arrive. Rauch was arrested later on Tuesday night, police said.
The charge, the bond, and what the process looks like
Rauch is charged with attempted kidnapping involving a minor, a felony allegation under Kentucky law. He is being held in the Powell County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash bond — a full cash bond, which in Kentucky practice means the bond amount must be posted in cash for a defendant to be released before trial, rather than through a bondsman's fee. A bond of that size in a town of about 3,100 people underlines how seriously the local court is treating an allegation involving a child stranger-grab in a public store.
From here, a Kentucky felony case of this kind ordinarily moves through an initial court appearance in district court, a preliminary hearing on whether there is probable cause, and then consideration by a grand jury before any trial in circuit court. Police said the investigation is a local one, led by the Stanton Police Department. Anyone in the Stanton area who was in the Sav-A-Lot on Tuesday evening, or who saw anything in the parking lot around 6:00 p.m., is the kind of witness officers typically ask to come forward in the first days of such a case.
Police say the attempt ended when the girl fought to get away and a falling sign drew attention. Child-safety officers in case after case give the same advice Stanton parents are hearing this week: a child who resists, makes noise and draws eyes is doing exactly the right thing — and a store full of adults is a place to run towards, not away from.
A small town absorbs a frightening evening
Stanton is a town of approximately 3,100 residents, the kind of place where a grocery store on a Tuesday evening is full of people who know each other. That is part of why an alleged stranger attempt in the town's grocery store has landed so hard locally: it happened in the most ordinary setting there is, in front of a community that is used to feeling safe in it. For Punjabi and other immigrant families in Kentucky's smaller towns — including families who run and staff stores like this one across the state — the case is a reminder that the safety routines taught in big cities apply in small towns too.
What happens next
Rauch remains in the Powell County Detention Center on the $500,000 cash bond unless the bond is changed by a court or posted. His first court dates, and any decision by prosecutors on how the attempted-kidnapping charge proceeds, are the next steps to watch. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the Stanton Police Department or the Powell County courts release further verified information. The allegation against Rauch remains exactly that — an allegation — until a court rules.