SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. -- One upstate neighborhood is on alert after some residents said a man has tried to kidnap their children on two occasions.

“It’s horrifying,” said Amy Smith, one parent. “It’s a parent’s biggest nightmare.”

Smith said her daughter, Emily, and a friend, Madison, were approached by a man at a bus stop in the Gilder Creek Farm neighborhood off Woodruff Road. The bus stop was only feet from their home.

Emily and Madison, both 11 years old, said they had just gotten off the bus when the man drove up.

“The thing that caught my attention is when he said, ‘Your brother is looking for you,’” Emily said. “He said something like, ‘Come follow me and I’ll show you where he is.’”

The girls said they did not follow the man and he drove away slowly. When he got further away, the girls ran away in the opposite direction.

The day before this incident, a boy said the same thing happened to him in the same neighborhood but at a different bus stop.

The boy said a man drove up to him and told him his brother was sick. The man asked the boy to come with him. They boy said he became suspicious and ran away.

“I’m still scared that he’s still roaming around the neighborhood trying to find other kids,” Emily said.

Smith said she too is scared, because the next child the man approaches may not know to run away.

“There’s a lot of children that would be scared and freeze and get in the car,” Smith said.

The children described the man as older and bald, driving a silver car.

Deputies have stepped up patrols in the area since the incidents occurred. They asked anyone with information about the case the call the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.