MCKINLEY PARK — A group of Southwest Side auto repair workers disrupted a brazen daytime sex attack attempt, witnesses said.
The attack was just before 9 a.m. Wednesday in the pay parking lot just west of the CTA Orange Line 35th/Archer stop, where witnesses and police said a man approached a 22-year-old woman, lifted up her dress and ripped off her underwear as he tumbled on top of her.
"I seen him walking with her and thought he was reaching to tickle her. But he lifted her dress up ... I thought he was stealing her purse, but he was holding her underwear," said Jimmy Drougas, owner of the Autos "R" Us body shop.
Drougas and workers at the Pablo's Tires shop next door said the woman's screams and cries alerted them to the attack behind their shops in a busy walkway where commuters head to the "L" daily.
Casey Cora says the mechanics acted without hesitation:
That the incident happened during a weekday rush hour — the victim told witnesses she'd been on her way to work — only made it more shocking, the workers said.
"In the morning, my God, there's mothers walking with their daughters here," Drougas said.
As a couple of workers tended to the victim, the attacker ran away with several of the witnesses chasing him, including a Jewel truck driver and Francisco Cruz, a mechanic at Pablo's, an auto repair shop at Archer and Oakley avenues.
"The guy ran into the alley and ran into a house. He still comes around this area," Cruz said.
Witnesses described the attacker as a slim black man believed to be in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall with dreadlocks tied back into one long braid.
Police did not provide a description.
Cruz and other workers said the man was seen in the neighborhood as recently as Monday morning.
Standing behind the tire shop in an area dirtied with old tires and pipes and hydraulic equipment, Pablo's workers recounted the incident to a reporter.
The guys said they were hoping police could make a quick arrest, but they said they wouldn't mind getting to him first.
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