A liberal slathering of suntan lotion gave one woman more protection than she bargained for, allowing her to slip out of the grasp of a would-be rapist, police near Los Angeles said on Tuesday.
Sheriffs in Orange County, south-east of Los Angeles, said the woman was able to struggle out of the grip of a man who assaulted her in a public park on Sunday because he couldn’t get a good hold on her.
“She had a large amount of suntan oil on, which made her very slippery and hard to grasp,” Orange County sheriff’s spokesperson Jim Amormino told KCAL9 television news.
“And her courage — she was able to kick and scream and fight him off,” he added, praising the pluck of the woman in her 20s.
The attack took place while the woman stopped off in a bathroom while jogging in the deserted park early on Sunday.
When she emerged from a stall, a man was lying in wait for her inside the women’s loo, Amormino said.
The man, who she said was poised to assault her sexually, tackled her to the ground, but her suntan protection allowed her to escape his grasp and make a dash for the door.
The woman slipped away from her attacker with only minor scrapes, cuts and bruises. Police are hunting for the suspect, who fled the scene after the attack. — AFP