DANA POINT : Girls’ Screams Deter Molestation Attempt

A man sought by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for harassing children over the past three months is suspected of attempting to molest two girls on Tuesday.

The incidents have panicked parents in the normally quiet neighborhoods in Dana Point and prompted one elementary school to send warning letters home with students.

Sgt. Hal Brotheim, who heads the sheriff’s sex crimes division, said the man pretends to have lost a cat or a dog, then asks children for help in finding the animal.

On Tuesday, 7-year-old twin girls were approached with a similar story while playing in front of their home at Calle Naranja and Calle Real by a man described as being in his early 20s, with long, brown hair and an acne-scarred face.

The children were drawn to the bottom of a slope behind their house. Brotheim said the man touched one of the girls on the head and told her to be a lookout. The girls began yelling for help and ran from the area.

“Parents are feeling pretty upset about the fact that there is a child molester loose in our neighborhood,” said one woman, who added that her daughter was molested recently by a man using a similar ruse.

The woman, who lives near Palisades Elementary School, said her daughter was approached near her house.

“He told her that he lost his kitty and went to some bushes in the side of our house,” said the woman. The woman said the man forced the girl to touch him.

The girl has received treatment for trauma stemming from the incident and family members said they will be moving from the neighborhood next week.

Three of the incidents have occurred near Palisades Elementary School. The others were near the playing fields at Dana Point Park.

Tuesday’s molestation attempt was the second such incident reported in the past two weeks.

On May 25, a man saying he had lost his cat approached two children at Del Obispo Park. Sheriff’s investigators said only that the youths became frightened by the man and left.

The park is about two miles from Palisades Elementary School, which has sent two warning letters to parents in the past two weeks, including one sent home Wednesday.