Perspirator or Perpetrator-Take 2

While taking a stroll with my husband, Alan, another disturbing experience on the Highland Canal bike path occurred. A man clearly out of place had stopped on his bike next to a group of little girls who were playing at a park just1000 feet from the path. He stared at these children with intensity like he was watching a porn flick. It was so disturbing I asked Alan to stop so we could keep the girls safe. We pretended to enjoy the scenery just to keep our eye on him because after my last blog about a suspicious character on the path, a teenager was assaulted a mere 9 days later. At the time, we couldn’t do anything about the guy because he was only looking suspicious. My heart fell when I heard the news and I began to weep as I talked to the crime stoppers’ hotline. This unfortunate assault could have been prevented. I then emailed my blog article to Channel 7 news as soon as I learned the teenage girl was assaulted but neither the police nor the news contacted me for further information.

Therefore, witnessing another potential crime in the same general area as the teenager’s assault, we decided to be the Path Patrol in order to prevent these three little girls or anyone else for that matter from being hurt. We approached the kids and pointed the man out hoping he would see we were talking about him yet he continued staring. He moved his bike in two-feet increments then turned back to stare at them. Eventually he noticed our presence and moved forward about 100 feet to see if we’d moved on. We decided to stay behind him and watch him. He started hiding his face as it became clear we were following him. Soon another strange man joined him on the path and we simply watched them. The older man started scouting out different avenues they could take. He pointed out an area on the Cherry Creek path as though they were recalculating their next move and resorting to Plan B. The older guy soon realized we were suspicious and pretended he didn’t know where he was by asking us which path led to Parker Road. I deliberately pointed in the opposite direction that would have kept him on the Highland Canal path because we witnessed him instructing his partner to go on Cherry Creek. He looked confuses and froze seemingly not knowing what to do when he was misdirected. I think he anticipated we’d tell him to go in the direction he instructed his friend to follow. His friend had gone ahead on the Cherry Creek Path and had stopped to wait on him—watching us. Alan and I decided to go in the direction of his friend and the old man just stood there seemingly perplexed. We followed the younger man on the bike for about 30 minutes because the guy would only move a foot or two waiting for his partner who we must of spooked off because the guy never caught up to him. We warned a mother of three to stick close together as they passed the guy on the bike. I looked at the man and gesture in a manner that would suggest we were talking about him and then the mother took my lead and scoped him out. We did this to show him silently we were watching him—hoping to thwart any possible attack. Alan and I watched her pass the man and then we went to a nearby bridge and watched him for about 10 more minutes. The path was finally beginning to fill up with other bicyclists and runners, so we decided we could stop standing guard and finish our walk.

Were these two men simply exploring nature or were they looking for prey? My guess is the latter because their attire didn’t look appropriate for the path. They kept meeting up at different places as to not be too obvious and the one would not show his face. One might think that the older guy was just an old man out for a stroll but his bizarre behavior suggested otherwise.

This is the third “alleged” crime we’ve witnessed in the last month and I am disturbed by the lack of response I’ve gotten. Our children are being stalked, assaulted, raped and murdered and the unsettling feeling these guys created for us made us believe they were looking around for their next victim. I am forwarding a picture of the two men in an effort to protect others but not to assume these two were anything but weird (hopefully). In this country we are innocent until proven guilty but there isn’t any reason why we cannot be aware of the dangers out there. It’s better to be safe than sorry.