A woman on a peaceful, morning run - hears strange footsteps behind her - moments later - a man is grabbing her.
The brazen attack happened just before sunrise at Lake Zorinsky near 168th street Wednesday morning.
The victim is still shooken up from that scary incident the day after.
She tells KMTV she's been to Lake Zorinski ever since she was a little kid and never had an experience like this and hopes the man that grabbed her is caught by police.
“I saw this man and he was walking the same direction I was running on the trail,” said the victim.
As she jogged, she could hear him start to run.
“He must have had boots on because i could hear him clipping behind me,” she said, “I picked up the pace but he ran faster and caught me pretty quickly.”
Seconds later he grabbed her.
“He tried to pull my running shorts down and I just screamed as loud as I could for as long as I could as soon as I started screaming that's when he pushed me into the wooded area,” said the victim.
She screamed and struggled and eventually broke free. She said the man ran the other way and she went home and called police, “Scared the daylights out of me.”
It's a story alarming the running community. Runner Nikki Kendall comes to Lake Zorinsky multiple times a week and calls the incident scary.
“We have such a strong running community at Omaha and to kind of know our central hub here is being violated, is so unfortunate and sad,” said Kendall.
Kendall said she tries to always be prepared.
“Always wearing a Road ID, carrying your phone with you, I always carry my drivers license as well just in case if something happens,” said Kendall.
From now on this victim will never run alone for her morning workout.
“I will never run my myself in the dark for sure in the morning,” said the victim.
Luckily the victim was not hurt, and she is safe with her family.
She describes the man as being shorter than 5’7, wearing a t-shirt and jeans and apparently boots.
If you have any information on this crime call OPD Crimestoppers at 444-STOP.
