Convicted Kidnapper, Missing Boy Sought<BR>Man Lured 11-Year-Old With Bicycle Ride, Authorities Say <BR>Oct. 3, 2000 <P>By Frances Ann Burns <P> <BR> <BR>Francisco Phalen Hernandez <BR>LOS ANGELES (APBnews.com) -- Authorities on both sides of the border say a Mexican man deported last year after serving a prison term for child abduction may have returned to the United States with a missing 11-year-old Mexican boy. <P>Francisco Phalen Hernandez, 31, and the boy, Francisco Javier Andrade Vega, were last seen in Mexicali, Mexico, on Aug. 30, according to the Los Angeles office of the FBI. The boy's friends said he accepted an offer to go to Phalen's home. <P>Phalen had been living in Mexicali, a city near the border about 100 miles east of the Tijuana-San Diego area, since his release. He made a living peddling candy to construction workers during the day and to children in the evening. <P>Offers of Nintendo <P>Mexican authorities told the FBI that he befriended a group of boys and visited them every day in an alley near Francisco Javier's home. <P>According to witnesses, Phalen offered Francisco Javier and another child a ride on his bicycle, having told them he was going to take them to his house to give them a Nintendo video game, the FBI said in a news release. <P>The second boy did not accompany the two to Phalen's home. But Francisco Javier stayed on the bicycle and was last seen riding with Phalen near his Mexicali residence, the FBI said. <P> <BR> <BR>Francisco Javier Andrade Vega <BR>Mexican police have failed to find the missing pair and say that Phalen may be in Southern California. The FBI and the Imperial County Sheriff's Office have joined the investigation. <P>The boy was born on June 27, 1989. When he vanished, he was wearing a light-colored T-shirt, denim shorts and tennis shoes. <P>Many aliases <P>Phalen has used a long list of aliases and a number of birthdays, all of them in 1969. He was actually born on Jan. 16, 1969. He is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall with a dark complexion. A partly removed tattoo on the left side of his chest resembles Chinese characters. <P>He has narrow eyelids and a deformed middle figure on his right hand because of an injury. He has been employed as a gardener and a welder. <P>Anyone with information on Phalen or the missing boy is asked to call the FBI or Crime Stoppers at (619) 235-TIPS. <P>Frances Ann Burns is an APBnews.com staff writer (Frances.Burns@APBnews.com). <P><BR><a href="http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/10/03/kidnap1003_01.html";>http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/10/03/kidnap1003_01.html<;/a><P>