Police in Fairfax County say there have been nine reports of women being groped in the Springfield area, and they believe all of the incidents are connected. Jackie Bensen reports.
Springfield police now say a total of nine women have had the unnerving experience of being grabbed from behind by the same man.
A 42-year-old woman who was grabbed from behind while in front of her home on Hibbling Avenue last Thursday afternoon had no idea it was part of a strange series of crimes that has resulted in an intensive search for the man, police said.
The Hibbling Avenue assault was actually the second crime by the same man in a 30-minute period that day.
A half-hour earlier, at 4 p.m., a woman walking in the 7200 block of Commerce Street, less than a half-mile away, was also groped from behind.
Nine assaults have been reported in a small section of Springfield dating to September. The victims range in age from 42 to 15 years old.
Diana Wheeler said it's changed the way people live in the long-established neighborhood of 1950s ranch-style homes. "When I go to visit my friend, she walks me back up the street."
The victims said the suspect is Hispanic, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-8 and he often wears a red baseball cap.
