NAPLES, Fla. — Naples Police are looking for a man they say forced himself on a teenage girl and tried to kiss her at a bus stop.
It happened on August 18 at a Collier County bus stop near Fleischmann Park. According to a police report obtained by Fox 4, the girl was at the bus stop and recognized three other girls who went to the same school.
While waiting, she told police a man nearby was lifting up his shirt, showing his boxers and chest.
To avoid him, she told police she stood on the other side of the bus stop. However, the man walked up to her, forced his body on her, and tried to kiss her, police say.
"It is unusual to be in broad daylight," said Dr. Dave Thomas, Forensics Studies professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.
The girl said she tried to push him away but kept pushing his face and body on her. At one point, she fell to the ground on the sidewalk near the road. As she tried to get up, the man tried to help her, police say. He told the girl he confused her with his girlfriend.
Nearby one of the other girls saw the teenager on the ground. While she walked over to help, another filmed about three seconds of the man over the teenager.
It's a move Thomas is concerned with.
"What I don’t understand is why nobody called, why nobody dialed 911," he said. "I think parents and other individuals have to start saying it’s important that you put down the phone.”
Police say once the victim got up, they waited together for the bus. It came two minutes after the attack happened, the report says.
Once it arrived, they all got on the bus. The man, police say, grabbed the victim inappropriately and she told him to stop.
"You have an incident that’s in progress, so it would benefit you to dial 911 and to at least get law enforcement en route," Thomas said. "
The report says the girls went to the back of the bus while the man sat in the front. He watched her during the ride, police say. "The bus driver probably could’ve kicked him off."
Fox 4 reached out to Collier County, asking why the driver didn't call the police or intervene. As of Monday afternoon, we have not heard back.
The victim later stood up to get off, and the man did the same. However, police say he got off and the girl did not.
"That was very smart. She was thinking," Thomas said. "She had time to think because of the bus ride, so she got. I think she went from the victim role to becoming you know, I’m going to get out of this."
According to the report, "the victim advised she believed that he was trying to get off at the same stop as her. She advised that she was terrified of what he might do."
The girl took the bus to the Collier County government buildings, so she wouldn't be near the man, police said.
She and her parents reported the assault and injuries to police, telling them she had no idea who the man was.
The incident, Thomas says, is a crime of opportunity.
"There are going to be predators and they are going to take advantage," he said.
He said the best thing parents can do is to make their children aware of their situations and make sure they travel in groups.
"If you’re with more than one person, then you’re in a better position," Thomas said.
If you know anything about the assault, you're asked to call the Naples Police Department.
