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Leap from a moving car foils her abductor
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
LAND O'LAKES -- The woman was walking to her car outside Sam's Tavern at 2 a.m. Tuesday when a man jumped from the roof of the bar to the parking lot below, nearly knocking her down. She knew she was in trouble. She took off running south and got about 100 feet from the bar at 2624 Land O'Lakes Blvd. In the panicked blur of sprinting down the dark sidewalk, she slipped on a patch of grass. He caught up to her and clasped his hand tightly over her mouth, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report. The man dragged her back to her car, drove her to a remote spot and tried to force her into a sex act, the report said. The woman saved herself with some quick thinking and a quick jump from the moving car. "She was emotionally traumatized, but physically okay," sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said. Officials are withholding the woman's name due to the nature of the attack. Sheriff's deputies are looking for the attacker, described as a 40-year-old, 6-foot-tall, slender white man. He fled in the woman's four-door, 1997 green Saturn SL-2. "He left in that car, but he very well could have ditched it by now," Doll said. The woman was just stepping out of the bar early Tuesday when the man jumped from the roof, the report said. He "smashed his face into the pavement," the report said, giving the woman a few seconds to take off running. He caught up to her when she slipped. As he held his hand over her mouth, he told the woman all he wanted was a ride home, the report said. He would let her go, he said, if she allowed him to drive her car. She agreed. They drove north on U.S. 41 and turned into an area sometimes called Cypress Bayou, the woman told deputies. The man parked in a cul-de-sac, pulled down his pants and asked the woman to perform oral sex on him, the report said. When she refused, the man grabbed the back of her head and said he wasn't going to hurt her, the report said. She countered with a plan. She suggested they go somewhere else, because they could get caught at that spot with so many houses nearby. He agreed and started driving down another street, which authorities later determined was Henry Drive. Then came the woman's opportunity: The car began to skid as it hit some loose gravel. The man was concentrating on the road, giving the woman a chance to open her car door and jump out, the report said. She ran. And screamed. And went to the nearest home calling for help. Nobody answered at that house, but her screaming woke a neighbor, who grabbed a phone and ran outside. She handed the phone to the victim, who called 911 as her attacker drove away. Authorities also withheld the neighbor's name. Anyone with information is asked to call the Pasco County Sheriff's Office toll-free at 1-800-854-2862. -- Bridget Hall Grumet covers crime in east Pasco. She can be reached at (352) 521-5757, ext. 23, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 23. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com
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