Teen Raped In Northeast Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Residents in one Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood are nervous after learning a teenage girl was raped in their backyard.
Pat McGovern said, "It happened right underneath our bedroom window, so it's really scary."
Scared and shaken, McGovern says police searched for evidence in her backyard after a 16-year-old girl was found sexually assaulted.
"It very easily could have been me," McGovern added.
According to neighbors, it happened Friday night between 9:00 and 9:30. Eyewitness News learned the victim had just left the park on the 8200 block of Crispin Street and was walking along Hess Street when a man grabbed her, forced her into a lot and attacked her.
Sources say the victim told police, her attacker claimed to be her "boyfriend," but she did not recognize him.
Neighbor Peter Delia said, "Nothing like that has really happened here."
Delia calls his neighborhood quiet and family-friendly. But where the girl fell victim has been problematic, according to one neighbor who wished to remain anonymous.
"There has been people in and out of the backyard, sleeping back there, drug paraphernalia, very scary."
Neighbors say the attack happened in the yard of a home that was foreclosed and abandoned with overgrown trees and bushes, which allowed the attack to go undetected. Someone has since cut down the trees but for some neighbors, that wasn't enough.
Delia said, "They've been watching the kids now since it's happened. Couple people are talking about moving."
In the meantime, the search continues for the suspect described by the victim as a tall, thin black male who was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt at the time and drove away in a white pickup truck with a ladder on top. Anyone with information is asked to call the police.
Reported By: Elizabeth Hur, CBS 3
