Details are kinda important, you know.

[missdiane]

Someone posted on a local FB group wondering about a police presence at an apartment complex a couple of streets away from me. This morning there were multiple copies of this post on different local FB pages, sent out via email and also a robocall from the local PD:

An assault took place on February 19, 2017 at approximately 5:30pm by an unknown male. The assailant confronted the victim at South 1st Avenue and Johnson Street and forced her to walk to Harper Street, where the assault took place.
The suspect has not yet been apprehended and an active investigation is underway by the Highland Park Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
If anyone has any information, please call the Highland Park Police Department at 732-572-3800 or Middlesex County Crime Stoppers at 800-939-9600

That's pretty darned scary as I live only over on 2nd, not too far away but I see several problems.
Was this dude armed? Knife? Gun? Boomerang?
What does he look like? Was he a peg-legged pirate? A hasidic Jew? A grizzly old white dude? 
Did he run off in a particular direction? Toward the neighboring town with the bigger crime problem, perhaps?
Did the victim know him? That would make a BIG difference.

It seems rather irresponsible to send out this huge alert yet give no details. It does nothing but scare people. Dopes.

EDIT: Holy CRAP at the news article! Gunman forced woman into basement, sexually assaulted her, cops say

 STILL no freaking description. What gives?!?!

Comments

[veganhothead.livejournal.com]

Yipes! That's not much to go on, is it. I think if the assailant was a peg leg pirate they would have noted that and caught him pretty quick. I hope.

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Details! Details! They warned you to avoid unknown males, what more do you need?

Besides the people manning the phones at the police dept. are probably bored and lonely and it will cheer them up to get lots of phone calls when every man walking through the neighborhood is reported to them.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

There was a vague report of someone "suspicious" the other day wearing khaki's and and orange vest but no one said if the two are related

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ye gods, that's IT?? No description? No vehicle? No clothing mentioned? Someone could have seen him, but...how would they know?? This is bullshit.

*hugs you hard*

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

The local paper finally gave a better description:
The suspect is described as a black male in his early to mid-20s, five-feet, seven-inches tall with a medium build and short hair. He was wearing a red T-shirt, black jacket and grey sweatpants.

So now I know who to take a second look at if the guy is DUMB enough to wander the neighborhood. Highland Park is a tight community and if he's around, he'll get his ass caught.

It's not surprising they don't know if there was a vehicle since he dragged her inside a building.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

When we had a rapist in our apartment complex several years ago. He raped five women and all five had a different description of him. OTOH, they said nothing to us - the apartment manager was afraid it would affect rentals. Ya think? The local TV station got wind of it and suddenly we had a new manager and there were alerts posted everywhere. Within two days, they had the guy. Go freaking figure...

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

CRIPES. I actually hope that the former apartment manager got sued. He knowingly put women at risk - especially after it happened more than once.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

She... it was a woman. No idea what happened to her. She was just gone one day.