Man breaks in, tries to assault sleeping woman

Police are looking for a man who broke into a Miami Beach apartment and tried to sexually assault a sleeping woman.

It happened about 6 a.m. Sunday in the 8300 block of Crespi Boulevard in the city’s North Beach community. The woman was sleeping on her couch when the man broke into her apartment, police said.

When she woke up, a man wearing a dark hoodie and jeans was touching her underneath her underwear and he exposed himself, police said in a Twitter alert. The woman pushed her attacker and yelled at him to leave — and when he didn’t she was able to run outside the apartment and scream for help.

She later told investigators that, before the attack, she had secured all the doors in her apartment and the bedroom window had been closed but unlocked.

The assailant fled with her iPhone and $52, she told police. The woman’s description of her attacker shares some similarities with the so called “Creeper,” a serial stalker who terrorized several women in their apartments in Miami, Coral Gables and Miami Beach three years ago, according to The Miami Herald. In those cases, a man broke into the homes and stood over the women as they slept. But Miami Beach told the paper that were differences between Sunday’s incident such as the intruder raising his voice and stealing items.

“We can’t say [it’s not the same person] with 100 percent certainty,” Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez told the newspaper. “However the MO [modus operandi] is vastly different. Right now, there aren’t any direct links.”

Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 305-471-8477.