Chicago police looking for suspected serial groper on skateboard terrorizing women in city

By Liz Nagy

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago police said a man on a one wheel skateboard is sexually terrorizing women in the city, groping at least two on the street.

Paige Ruhnke says she is also one of his victims, and can’t shake his face from her memory.

“One hundred percent, I know it’s the guy,” she said. “He completely reached under my shorts and groped me.”

Ruhnke said on May 11 she was walking her dog along the Lakefront Trail near the Navy Pier flyover in midmorning daylight.

“He’s on the one wheel skateboard, comes up behind me and grabs underneath me. I yell at him and he just laughs in my face and leaves,” she recalled. “I was angry, I was uncomfortable, I was scared. It was just a complete violation.”

Motivated by rage and fear, Ruhnke and other women have posted a photo of the alleged offender on flyers around downtown Chicago.

Chicago police said the man has assaulted at least two women in the South and West loops and released their own photos of the suspect in a community alert. Ruhnke said it’s undeniably her attacker.

Investigators said he allegedly approached women from behind and groped them before getting away.

“I’ve just seen him riding around,” Michael Perrino said.

An avid electric vehicle rider himself, Perrino said Monday morning he spotted the skateboarder and pursued him from the lakefront.

“I see the guy. So I turn around and started to follow him. He notices me following him, gets pretty hostile, tells me to be careful,” he recounted. “I follow him into an alley that he very deliberately turns into. And very deliberately goes to the door of the restaurant.”

Perrino snapped photos of who he believes is the offender in River North. Now Perrino is part of the pursuit to find the man that has robbed women of their peace and safety.

“I want him put away and I want him to have to listen to the victims say how painful this is and how much this has affected their life. I don’t want him to get a fine and go on with his life,” Ruhnke said.

The suspect is described as wearing a white helmet, and sunglasses and riding a motorized scooter, according to Chicago police.

Ruhnke said she’s been in communication with as many as 12 possible victims of this suspect, going back to 2021, and encourages anyone who has been victimized by him to continue to report the assaults to police.

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