West Des Moines Woman Says She Was Assaulted While Sunbathing

A 25-year-old woman reported to police that she was assaulted by a stranger Monday afternoon as she sunbathed near the pool of her West Des Moines apartment complex.

She was willing to let the incident go until she learned that another woman had allegedly been assaulted in the same vicinity in the 6500 block of Vista Drive.

The man, who was described as white with “scruffy-looking facial hair,” reportedly asked her for the time, then left the area. He returned about an hour later and reportedly grabbed her, touching her upper back and the upper backside of one leg.

When she asked a group of men sitting nearby if they were with the man, they said they didn’t know him, but he had been “checking her out the entire time he was there,” according to Officer Ryan Anderson’s report.

She changed her mind about making a formal report after the apartment manager received a call from another tenant who reported that someone loitering near the complex had attempted to touch her hip area, where her keys were attached to her belt loop. She told police that when she attempted to defend herself, the man ran away.