Police Hope Public Can Help Them Find Groper In Riverside

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA)   -- Police in Riverside are hoping the public can help them nab a groper.

The suspect followed a young woman in a parking lot and groped her on April 23.

CBS2's Nicole Comstock says the suspect groped the woman as she was about to get into her car.

He then ran to his Mercedes-Benz.

Police were able to get a license plate of the vehicle from surveillance video but the car was registered to someone else.

"We believe from watching the entire video that he was in this parking lot for a reason," says Riverside Officer Ryan Railsback.

The groper was wearing a red T-shirt. He parked the vehicle at a Medical Plaza on Magnolia Avenue.

Police believe when he saw a young woman wearing a backpack come out of the building he decided to follow her.

He followed her from the parking lot, through an alley way and into another parking lot.

The suspect is caught on camera, casually walking through the lot and passing other people and still following the victim's every move.

Police say when they walked out of frame and just before she got into her car, he reached down beneath her backpack and groped her.

Women in the area told Comstock they hope police find the man soon.

"A man should never feel the right to grab a woman in any way shape or form without her permission," says Jeane Hatcher, a Riverside resident.

She said she knows how the victim feels because it's happened to her throughout her life.

"But you just put up with it. And now we know it's not okay," Hatcher says.

The young woman in the video knows it's not okay, as well. She yelled at him and called police.

"She did the right thing by reporting this right away to us so we could get involved but unfortunately our detectives have been working it [but to no avail]," Railsback said.

More than three months later, they still haven't identified a suspect. They say they want to stop him from doing it again.

The suspect is described as a white or Latino, about 5 feet 6 inches and about 140 pounds.

If you recognize the man, you're asked to call the Riverside Police Department.