A predator is on the loose, attacking women on the east side of the valley.
One victim says he tried to grope her. Another says he tried to kidnap her. Both incidents happened near Mountain Vista Street and Harmon Avenue. Both happened in broad daylight.
“It was pretty scary,” said one woman, who did not want to reveal her identity.
The woman was walking to a bus stop when a guy in a dark blue van drove by.
“He pulled into the side street in front of me, a little ways down,” the woman said.
She didn’t think anything of it. Then he pounced.
“He just came right behind me that quick and grabbed my arm and tried to, I think, put his hand over my mouth,” the woman said. “I just kind of panicked like, ‘oh my god!’”
The woman fought back. And a bad habit may have saved her life.
“I kind of went back around me with the lit cigarette and he let go, backed off and I took off running,” the woman said.
Another woman who didn’t want to reveal her identity tells 13 Action News she believes the same guy a week earlier groped her at a bus stop in the same neighborhood.
“I’ve seen him follow me before,” the second woman said. “Next thing you know, he touches my thigh.”
That woman fought back with some tough words.
“I leaned over and I said, ‘don’t touch me. If you touch me, I’ll shoot you,’” the second woman said.
In both cases the attacker was driving a dark blue van.
“How many other creeps on Tropicana try to sexually assault women?” the second woman asked.
Both women want that man off the streets.
“He needs to be caught,” the second woman said.
