Saturday, May 26, 2007

NY: Teen Gets "Upper Foot" On Pervert

A 14-year-old Staten Island girl proved she was tougher than anyone imagined after she fought off a pervert by kicking him in the crotch.

The eighth-grader was on her way home from school Tuesday when a man tailed her in his car on Clove Road, got out, gripped her wrist and tried to pull her into the vehicle.

"He came out and grabbed my wrist, tight. And said, 'Get inside the car!' He was yelling. I said, 'No!' and I was screaming for help," said the poised West Brighton teen, whose name is being withheld by the Daily News.

Construction workers across the street either didn't hear her over their jackhammer or thought she was fooling around and didn't come to her aid, she said. Then she remembered a safety tip she was taught in second grade.

"I kicked him in his private area," the plucky teen told The News. "It just came into my head."

She kicked, then bolted.

But the fiend chased her for at least a block, stopping only when he saw she was heading back to her intermediate school, police sources said.

The brave teen ran into the school, and the principal called the cops.

The girl helped police create a sketch of her would-be abductor and showed officers the stretch on Clove Road near Forest Ave. where he had grabbed her.

"She's very quiet," said the girl's 20-year-old sister. "I would never think she would be capable of that, but she handled herself beautifully."

"I think what I did was smart, and very brave," the victim said. "I hope that they find the guy and put him in jail for life."

The eighth-grader said she is shaken by the incident. She's afraid to walk by herself and was grateful when her teachers got volunteers to walk her home.

"When I walk down the street, I wonder, 'Is he stalking me? Is he behind me?'" she said. Usually, she said, her boyfriend walks her home.

Her family moved to Staten Island from Pennsylvania only a year ago, and the attack did nothing to make her feel at home.

"I'm from the suburbs, and stuff like that didn't happen," she said. "When that happened to me, I hated New York. But now I've calmed down."

The suspect is described as Hispanic, 40 to 50 years old, 5-feet-10 with a thin build. He wore square-rimmed glasses and blue jeans and had a heavily pocked face.

He drove a rusted white four-door sedan.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

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