VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach Police are looking for a man they believe followed an elderly woman from a store parking lot to her home just outside of Town Center and assaulted her.
Those living in the area said their community stays pretty quiet and were surprised to hear a woman was assaulted at her front door on Monday.
"When you told me that, that was a shocker," Stevon Remson, a neighbor, said.
Update: Man arrested after allegedly following woman from store, assaulting her at front door: Virginia Beach police
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Man arrested in connection to assaulting woman at her front door: VBPD
News 3 did speak to the husband of the woman, but he didn't want to go on camera.
He said his wife is fine and was at a grocery store off of Virginia Beach Boulevard when this started.
Police said a man followed the woman throughout the store and into the parking lot where he allegedly made offensive comments to her.
For more than three miles the woman didn't know she was being followed home until she was assaulted.
"In this neighborhood that is really out of the ordinary," Remson said. "I've been here for almost 10 years, and I've never heard of an assault happening on this block."
Police believe the man in question is driving a white four-door Buick with the last four digits of the rear license plate possibly being 7-6-6-3.
"No, this is the first I've heard about it anyway," Gary Zalas, who works for the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office, said.
Zalas, who is the outreach coordinator for senior programs, said he's never heard of anyone doing something like this.
"What people have to understand, the 60s and the 70s are the old 40s and the 50s," Zalas said. "With a lot of us out there now we need to be smarter about what we do as we get older."
Zalas said a good idea is to have a buddy system and don't go shopping alone.
He also recommends letting your loved ones know where you are going and how long you may be gone.
Zalas said while this situation is awful, it's a reminder for the community to look out for one another, including the more vulnerable.
"Right now she's probably going to be fearful for a long while, for a very long while," Remson said. "I'm really sorry that that happened to her, but we're a good community out here, the more that neighbors know about it the more that neighbors will be looking out for her."
Police are asking anyone with knowledge of this incident, or who may be able to identify this individual, to please contact the VBPD Detective Bureau at 757-385-4101 or anonymously through Crime Solvers at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
