Bicycling groper on the loose at BYU

PROVO — Police are looking for a bicyclist who they say grabbed the chests of two different women as they walked around the BYU campus.

The first grope happened around 8 p.m. on July 25 when an 18- to 22-year-old man rode up to a 25-year-old student walking west of the Harold B. Lee Library, said BYU Police Lt. Arnold Lemmon.

As the man approached on his bike, he reached out and grabbed one of the woman's breasts.

"He did not say a word," Lemmon said. "She hollered at him, he looked at her, smiled, laughed and kept on riding."

The woman didn't report the incident to police until Aug. 7, but was quite upset when she did, Lemmon said. Delays are typical, he said, as it often takes victims several days to gather their courage to report incidents.

Three days after the first victim reported her encounter, a 20-year-old female visitor to BYU also reported she had been assaulted, Lemmon said.

This time, the woman called police 10 minutes after a man on a bicycle nearly forced her off the sidewalk east of the Wilkinson Center, grabbing her chest as he rode by, Lemmon said.

"Historically we get grabbers, but it's not even on an annual basis," Lemmon said. "It's kind of rare."

Both women described the man as around 160 to 170 pounds with a tanned face, short brown hair and between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall. They told police he was riding a gray or black mountain bike and during one of the assaults was wearing a black backpack.

Anyone with information is asked to call BYU police at 801-422-2222.

— Sara Israelsen-Hartley