Acton Police identify man who followed woman home from MBTA station
ACTON - Police have identified the man who followed a woman home from the South Acton MBTA station Wednesday night. The man's name has not been released, and the incident remains under investigation.
Commuters were on alert at the Commuter Rail Station, while detectives worked to track down the man caught on a security camera following a woman walking home from the train. The video shows him close behind as she finally turned for help, walking up to a neighbor's door.
"Anytime someone follows a female up a driveway that doesn't know that female and is yelling for that female to 'come here, come here,' that's alarming," said Acton Police Lt. Ed Lawton.
The neighbor who helped her, Arun Nambar, says he has a motion sensor light in the driveway that turned on when the woman walked by. He thinks that's what made her approach his house for help. "She says, 'help me, help me.' There was a guy standing right here and I started feeling really strange at that point, 10-10:30 right, I never expected that," Nambar said.
"She was terrified, terrified, terrified," said Lt. Lawton.
Other passengers are now terrified too, like the McGinnis family taking the Commuter Rail from Acton to Boston Friday. "I think I probably wouldn't take my son alone. I would always have you with me or have someone pick us up," said April McGinnis to her husband. "I feel like nowadays there is a lot of predatory stuff like this," said Joseph McGinnis.
In this case, Nambar told the strange man he was calling police. That's when he took off in a nearby car with someone else driving. Police say there may not technically be a crime, but it's still alarming.
"I can't see how it's a misunderstanding, if you follow someone up a driveway," said Lt. Lawton.
Police said the man was identified thanks to tips received from members of the public. No charges have been filed.
