Saratoga News Catcalling incident becomes dangerous By Michelle Alaimo A 16-year-old girl walking back to work after her lunch break got the scare of a lifetime Dec. 21 when a man jumped out of a car and grabbed her, pulling her by the arm before she could get away. According to Sheriff Lt. Cary Colla, the teenage clerk was walking on Paso Presada back to her job at Gene's Fine Foods on Cox Avenue at 2:16 p.m., when two older white males began "catcalling" to her from their car. The men yelled various statements to the girl, and when she ignored them, Gene's manager John Webber said, the men did a U-turn and stopped the car. One suspect grabbed the girl by the arm, but she pulled away and ran back to the store and reported the event to Webber. He said that he had the clerk write down everything that happened so that she wouldn't forget anything before deputies arrived. "She wasn't hurt but was pretty shook up," Webber said. Colla said the event is classified as a misdemeanor annoyance of a child under 18. However, Colla added that this type of incident is unusual for Saratoga. Webber said he was surprised by the incident. "During daylight hours, you wouldn't think something like this could happen in this area," Webber said. Patrols in the area will be intensified, sheriff officials said, adding that they didn't have descriptions of the men or the car they were driving. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 30, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.