Palo Alto police are looking for a man in a blue pick-up truck who followed a 14-year-old girl for a few blocks, then pulled up next to her and exposed himself before driving away.
Police said the girl called 911 on Monday at 4:47 p.m. who said she had been flashed in the 1600 block of Bryant Street. Officers raced to the scene but couldn't find thee suspect.
She had been walking southbound on the west sidewalk of the 1300 block of Bryant Street when she noticed the truck driving slowly behind her, police said. The driver had pulled over a couple of times behind her to stop as she kept walking, she told police.
Three blocks later, the driver pulled up next to her and stopped. When she turned to look inside, she made eye contact with the man and then saw that he was masturbating, police said.
The girl turned away and the suspect drove off. He was last seen driving southbound on Bryant Street.
She dialed 9-1-1 on her cell phone to report what had happened.
She described the suspect as a white man in his mid-thirties, with short brown hair and a medium build. He was wearing a black V-neck T-shirt and black aviator-style sunglasses. The victim described the suspect’s vehicle as a navy blue full-size pick-up truck that was clean and appeared to be new.
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Officers and detectives from the Palo Alto Police Department will be increasing marked and unmarked patrols and are paying special attention to frequent school commute routes used by students. There have been no reports of similar incidents recently in town.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through our free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
