Woman Robbed Of Cell Phone In Cooper City Park
PEMBROKE PINES (CBSMiami) – As Pembroke Pines police try to find the man responsible for a rash of attacks on young women walking along a stretch of Sheridan Street in the last few months, the Broward Sheriff's Office is looking into a robbery of a young woman in the same area.
The robbery happened March 23rd, just before 8:30 p.m., at Brian Piccolo Park at 9501 Sheridan Street in Cooper City.
Christina Gomez, 24, told police while she was jogging inside the park around a soccer field she noticed a young man on a bicycle. A short time later, as she continued along the path, she noticed the guy was directly behind her. When she turned to look at him he stopped. When she turned back and started to run away, she was suddenly tackled from behind.
Gomez said the man ripped her iPhone 4 from an armband wrapped around her left arm and ran to his bike.
Gomez's boyfriend, Joseph Morgenstern, who was in a nearby soccer field heard Gomez screams when she was tackled. When he ran to where she was, someone told him the man who attacked Gomez was heading toward the park's west entrance. Morgenstern drove through the park to entrance. When he got there he found the gate was locked, the man had jumped the fence and was trying to pull his bike over to him. The bike got stuck and the man ran off.
Morgenstern found a deputy at a nearby CVS and told him what happened. A search by Broward Sheriff's deputies turned up nothing.
Gomez said her attacker was about six feet tall, in his late 20s to early 30s, was clean-shaven and had short hair.
Pembroke Pines police said the man's description was similar to that of a person that has attacked a half a dozen young women walking alone in the 9700 block of Sheridan Street. The attacks, which started last January, have all occurred between 6 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.
In all the attacks, the women were approached from behind and had their breasts, buttocks and/or groin area grabbed. The person was described as being anywhere from 17 to 30 years old, about 5' 7", 180 pounds and had dark short hair.
