Police are searching for a man who walked through an unlocked door into a home in Santa Ana, and groped a 15-year-old girl who was sleeping in her bed Monday, authorities said.
A sketch released by the Santa Ana Police Department shows a man suspected of sexually assaulting a teenage girl on June 10, 2019.
The incident happened just after midnight at the home in the 1000 block of North Lincoln Avenue when the teenager woke up to find she was “being sexually assaulted” by an unknown man who was lying next to her, the Santa Ana Police Department said in a news release.
Standing behind her home’s screen-door, the teenage girl recounted the frightening incident.
“I felt someone lay down next to me, and originally I thought it was one of my brothers,” she told KTLA. “Then I felt like this person rubbing my stomach and putting their hands on my private area, on my shorts.”
She said he told her he was delivering a “message.”
She then started yelling at him to get out, and her screams woke up her mother, who was sleeping on a nearby couch.
The mother called the girl’s step-father, who confronted the intruder. The man then ran from the house, heading towards nearby railroad tracks, according to the family.
The intruder is described as a tall, lean, Latino man with a buzz-cut and a beard. He was last seen wearing a red flannel shirt and dark jeans. Police said the man appeared to be homeless and smelled like alcohol.
The man has not been identified and is still at-large, authorities said.
Anyone with information was asked to call Det. Julio Gallardo at 714-245-8378 or email jgallardo@santa-ana.org. To send an anonymous tip, call Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.