ANOTHER Criminal Mountain Biker!

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Woman fights off attacker on Stevens Creek Trail
By Diana Samuels


Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: 11/30/2009 09:57:10 PM PST
Updated: 12/01/2009 09:42:47 AM PST

A 27-year-old Mountain View woman was grabbed by a man while jogging
on Stevens Creek Trail on Sunday afternoon and managed to fight off
her attacker by scratching his face, police said.

The woman was jogging on the trail near the Dana Street overcrossing
about 1:25 p.m. when a man blocked her path. He was described as white
with a dark complexion, approximately 35 years old, with dark,
thinning hair and a full goatee, police said. He was of a medium
height, overweight and wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.

The man picked the woman up in a bear hug and carried her about 20 to
25 feet toward the bushes along the creek, police spokeswoman Liz
Wylie said. The woman scratched his face and fought him until he
dropped
her.

He fled southbound on a green mountain bike, and the woman borrowed a
cell phone from someone else on the trail to call police. She was
uninjured.

Police are calling the incident an attempted sexual assault, because
that seems the most likely motive, Wylie said.

"Because we don't know (the motive), we tend to kind of aim at the
worst-case scenario and can go down from there," she said.

Though the trail was busy that afternoon, no one else appears to have
witnessed the attack, Wylie said.

Police are preparing a sketch of the suspect, Wylie said, and have
been working with Stevens Creek rangers to patrol the trails and
investigate the crime. They searched through their file of registered
sex offenders for a
match and looked for homeless encampments on the trail Sunday night,
she said.

In the meantime, police are urging trail users to report suspicious
activity, carry a cell phone, use city streets and sidewalks after the
trail closes at dark, and be vigilant at all times of day.

Serious crimes are very rare on the trail, police said.

Anyone with information about Sunday's attack is encouraged to call
the Mountain View Police Department at 650-903-6344.

"It's just a grim reminder that crime can happen anytime," Wylie said.

Contact Diana Samuels at