Police are looking for a man who broke into a woman's home on Long Island and allegedly sexually assaulted her before fleeing on a bicycle.
Nassau County police said the man forced open the front door to a 58-year-old woman's home in Lynbrook on Aug. 12. The victim told NBC 4 New York Wednesday she thought he was looking for her roommate.
Once he was inside, however, he touched the woman inappropriately, choked her and tried to take off her pants, the woman said.
"He just hit me and knocked me out," she said. "I was yelling and screaming."
The victim said her roommate downstairs heard the attack and threatened to call 911. The attacker ran out the door and got away on a bike.
Neighbor John Simon said he told investigators he's seen a suspicious man riding around in the area recently.
"The past couple of nights I had seen a gentleman riding a bike up and down Horton Avenue very late at night," said Simon. "Two, three in the morning, which is very uncharacteristic for this neighborhood."
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Police are investigating whether the attack is related to another 20 minutes later the same night in nearby Valley Stream. In that case, a 30-year-old woman was walking home from the train station on Mill Road when a man on a bike grabbed her buttocks.
She ran to get away but he caught up with her, pushed her to the ground and punched her in the face, according to police. He tried to rip off her shirt but she fought and got away.
"That's alarming," said Tanisha Edwards of Valley Stream. "We wouldn't expect something like that to happen in a neighborhood like this."
Meanwhile, police are still looking for the man who sexually assaulted another woman this past weekend in Valley Stream State Park. In that case, a 60-year-old woman was assaulted on a hiking trail at 11 a.m. Police will not say if the cases are connected, but the victims all gave very similar descriptions of their attacker.
