Woman Nearly Raped After Mistaking Attacker's Car For Cab: NYPD

CYPRESS HILLS, NY — A woman was nearly raped at gunpoint after she left a Fulton Street bar restaurant and hopped into what she thought was a livery car, police said Sunday.

The 39-year-old woman called a cab on Aug. 6 at 5 a.m. but mistakenly got into the wrong car in front of El Gran Mar de Plata on Fulton Street and Force Tube Avenue in Cypress Hills.

After the woman entered the back seat, the driver drove her a couple of blocks away to Atlantic Avenue where he joined the woman in the back seat and pulled out a gun. The driver began striking the woman's face and body, but when he tried to rape the woman she managed to fight him off, police said.

The man moved back to the front of car and started driving with the battered woman still in the back seat. Officials said he drove her to an unknown location before forcing her out of the car.

The woman took herself to Jamaica Hospital, where she was treated for bruises to her face and chest.

Police describe the suspect as in his 20s with a thin build, wearing a baseball cap, a white T-shirt and jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

Photo courtesy of NYPD