A 15-year-old girl walking to Riverside-Brookfield High School was reportedly attacked by an unknown man just before 7 a.m. on Dec. 1.

According to the police report, the girl was walking west on Forest Avenue toward the Des Plaines River when a man walked past her in the opposite direction. Once she passed Lincoln Avenue, a man grabbed her from behind and placed his hand over her mouth, and said, “Don’t scream.”

At first the girl thought it might have been a friend playing a joke on her. But when she turned around, she didn’t recognize the man, who grabbed one of her arms and touched her genital area over her clothes.

The girl slapped the man in the face with her free hand, began screaming and ran west across the bridge. She then called police. The attacker reportedly attempted to kick the girl, missed and slipped on the ice before running away northbound through the alley between Lincoln and Groveland avenues.

The attacker is described as a white male between 26 and 30 years old with a medium build. The man was unshaven and had dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a dark winter jacket and a black hat, police said.

Police said they have received several calls from residents near the scene saying they heard screams and saw a girl running. Police have not located the offender, but plan on releasing a composite drawing once one is available.

In the meantime, Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said Riverside officers have launched extra patrols over the next several days during times when children are walking to and from school.

Anyone with information regarding the attack is being asked to call Riverside police at 447-2127.

Robbery

A 59-year-old woman was robbed of her purse, possibly at gunpoint, as she left her Brookfield apartment building on the morning of Nov. 29.

According to the police report, the woman left her residence in the 4600 block of Vernon Avenue just before 6:30 a.m. After she exited the south side of the building and reached the sidewalk, someone came up from behind and stuck an object, possibly a gun, in the woman’s back.

When the woman tried to turn around, the man grabbed the purse from her left shoulder and pushed her to the ground. The offender was last seen running toward Plainfield Road. The woman’s purse was found near some bushes on the north side of the building.

North Riverside police reported that a 36-year-old Broadview woman was robbed in the parking lot of the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, on the evening of Nov. 30.

The victim told police she parked in the overflow lot at the extreme east end of the mall property near the railroad tracks, exited her car and opened the trunk when a man approached her demanding all of her “stuff.”

Among the items taken from the woman were a gold and diamond wedding ring, a silver bracelet, a laptop computer, toys and clothing.

Man scammed of nearly $2,000

An 18-year-old Summit man told North Riverside police on Nov. 28 that he had been taken for $1,900 after being told he could pick up a flat panel TV, a video game system and a digital camera on the sly from an employee at Best Buy, 2358 Harlem Ave.

According to the report the man was in the store admiring TVs when a man told him that he had a friend who worked at the store who could get him the TV and other items at a discount.

The victim called a cellphone number and talked to someone who said to bring $1,900 in a white envelope and deposit it in a refrigerator which contained a large shipping envelope. The victim was told to take the shipping envelope, which purportedly contained receipts for the merchandise, to the TV department where he could pick up his items.

The shipping envelope contained circular ads from another store.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments from Nov. 24 through Dec. 1 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. The cases have not been adjudicated.

-compiled by Bob Uphues