A Manhattan woman was stalked by a vicious predator who snuck up behind her and exposed himself to her on a busy Upper West Side street – proof, she said, “the city is going from worse for worse”.
“There were so many things going through my mind about what could have happened,” victim Adrienne Leon, 34, told The Post of her heartbreaking June 29 encounter. “It’s scary, because he’s still there.”
Leon was waiting to grab a meal at Tacombi, a popular Mexican taqueria in Amsterdam near West 78th St., when she realized a stranger had followed her – and was stroking, just two meters behind her.
Which makes the situation all the more worrying – the summer sun was still bright at 7.30pm and there were a lot of people on the sidewalk, said Leon, who works in higher education.
“I noticed this man was following me from the corner of 78e Street and Amsterdam, then when I moved away he moved closer to me,” said Leon, who walked to a nearby doorman building for safety.
The stranger, who sported a long beard, “came closer to me and looked like he was stroking behind the letterbox on the other side of the building and he continued to stare at me.”
Worried, Leon walked just inside the doorman’s building entrance at 173 West 78e Street, but felt someone behind her.
“As soon as I turned around, the man followed me into the doorway and was there with his penis in his hand and said, ‘Hey, I just want to talk to you, I think you you are beautiful,” she said. .
“At that time, I didn’t want to scream because I didn’t want him to hurt me with a gun or a knife. I probably should have screamed, but I froze.
Leon rushed out the door and into Tacombi, where she called 911.
The entire episode was under three minutes long, but “it felt like an hour,” Leon said, adding, “It was so harrowing and I didn’t know what was going to happen. The energy has changed. Was he going to attack me?
“While I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, the same man approached another woman on West 79e and Amsterdam and seemed to harass her, as her hand gestures kept saying ‘no,'” Leon said.
When police failed to show up after 15 minutes, Leon, 34, drove to the nearby 20th District police station to report the incident – only to emerge shortly after to find the petter in the same area, walking from block to block with his hands. in his pants, stealing money from a homeless person’s mug and peeking into parked cars, she said.
Leon, who volunteers at Rikers Island teaching inmates about debate, recorded the reprobate but, “even with video evidence and a solid description, all I could do was file a complaint and hope the predator did not find another woman to harm. ,” she says.
Following the terrifying encounter, the Los Angeles native, who has lived in the Big Apple for a decade, warned friends and family to be vigilant and expressed his gratitude to Tacombi’s manager and doorman staff “for be concerned for my safety”. and the situation.
“After this incident, I wonder if I’m safer walking around town or at Rikers Island,” she said, adding that she had “never had a negative experience” at the prison complex.
Brendan Sweeney, the doorman on duty when Leon was accosted, said he saw the sleazy suspect “cornering women. I saw him approach her… I guess she was in the restaurant nearby and she came out and I was looking at the camera, and I saw him acting weird so I kept looking to see what was going to happen and I saw the guy approach her… He was touching himself, looking in cars, taking change from homeless mugs and mumbling to himself. This guy was really strange.
Neighborhood residents have vowed to remain vigilant following the horrific episode.
“You never know what might happen to you when you get home, so yes it’s very important to stay alert and look around,” said Emily, 26, who declined to give her last name.
The NYPD confirmed the incident was reported, but said no arrests were made.
Serious crime in the 20th Precinct, which covers the Upper West Side, is up 30% so far this year compared to the same period in 2021, according to NYPD data compiled through July 3.
Rapes are up 40% from 5 to 7; robberies increased by 22%, from 49 to 60; robbery jumped 28% from 310 to 398; burglaries jumped 63%, from 46 to 75; and assaults skyrocketed by 77%, from 30 to 53, according to the data.
In August 2020, residents of the Upper West Side fumed that three neighborhood hotels housing hundreds of homeless men during the coronavirus pandemic had turned the area into a spectacle of public urination, cat calls and open drug use.
Additional reporting by Maddie Panzer
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