Palo Alto police are searching for a man who allegedly followed a 12-year-old girl to her home and kissed her cheek Monday night.
The girl was walking her bike, around 5 p.m., going north on Tanland Drive from Amarillo Avenue and talking to a parent on her cellphone when she noticed a man jogging north on Tanland on the opposite side of the street, police said.
When she got to the apartment complex where she lives, the girl carried her bike upstairs and was getting out her house key when she saw the same man in the hallway of the apartment complex, police said. He walked past her and said, “Excuse me.” As she opened the door, with her back turned to the man, the man walked past her again and said, “Excuse me.” He then placed his hand over her mouth and kissed her cheek, police said. The girl screamed, and the man ran out of the apartment complex toward Tanland Drive.
Investigators said the girl’s parents called police at about 8:30 p.m. to report the incident.
The girl was not hurt and the incident lasted a couple of seconds, police said. She described the man as Hispanic and between the ages of 17 and 35 years. He was wearing a light gray hooded sweatshirt and dark workout pants.
No sketch of the man is available at this time, but if one is produced, the police department will release it.
Police are encouraging residents to report crimes and suspicious activity and advise parents to remind children to remain alert and to tell a trusted adult about anything they see that does not seem quite right.
Detectives are actively investigating this case. The police ask that anyone with information about this incident call the department at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.
So many things alarming about this incident. Incidents such as these seem to happen with some regularity in Palo Alto. The brazenness of the crime is shocking! Also alarming is that the perpetrators in these types of crimes in Palo are overwhelmingly Hispanic.What is it that emboldens them so? The fact that there is no traceability and they have little to lose if caught? Its frustrating that we cannot do much to prevent these crimes. We can only be vigilant, keep an eye out for each other and hope these criminals don’t get emboldened further and resort to worse violence.
@Concerned Resident – you are wrong about sex crimes in Palo Alto being “overwhelmingly Hispanic”. The majority of the suspects, at least as reported in the Palo Alto Weekly, are white men.
In fact, there is a series of these crimes around the California Ave area over the past couple of years where the suspect description from the police reports was “thin young white male”. The police never concluded that there was one perpetrator or a group of similar looking perpetrators, though they did issue artist sketches of the suspects that kind of looked similar. As far as I know, no suspect was ever arrested.
The title makes this sound like a playful incident. However, it seems like the suspect stalked the child to her apartment and behaved inappropriately, which is very disturbing and scary. Hopefully he will be apprehended soon.
@ concerned resident. I been living in Palo Alto for 30 yrs and Im Hispanic and I take your comment very offensive. Sad that people like you are living in the same city. Instead of helping you have made things worse. I feel bad for whoever lives next door to you. Learn the facts first. Just to add. I feel that your post should have never been posted. Its disrespectful in every way. Really hope you move away, Theirs know place for you here..