Gross ‘serial groper’ strikes in Spring Garden

Is he a reckless teenager or a devious predator?

That’s one of the questions police are trying to answer as they search for the man who groped two women last Thursday near Broad and Spring Garden. One of the attacks was caught on surveillance.

Authorities said the suspect first struck around 10 a.m. near 15th and Green streets. The victim bent down to tie her shoe when the suspect ran up behind her and grabbed her bottom.

A short time later, he grabbed another woman near the intersection of Broad and Brandywine streets.

“If that was your sister, your mother … you wouldn’t want that happening to them,” said Lt. Ray Evers. “If it was kid doing a joke, I don’t think he would’ve done it twice in a row.”

Evers said the suspect in last week’s attacks vaguely fit the description in three unsolved incidents in the same area last year.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251.