Groper Grabs Women Aboard Jamaica Buses, NYPD Says

JAMAICA, QUEENS -- Police are searching for the man in a purple scarf who caused two women to fear for their safety when he groped them on separate Queens buses in just hours apart.

The scarf was wrapped loosely around the man's face and head as he sat next to an 18-year-old woman on a southbound Q113 bus at around 1 p.m. on April 20, police said. He grabbed the woman's butt when the bus stopped to let off passengers at 147 Avenue and Guy R Brewer Boulevard in Jamaica.

At around 3:30 p.m. that same day, the man boarded another bus, this time on the Q111 route, and began chatting up another woman before grabbing her butt. Fearing for her safety, the woman hurried off the bus at the next stop on Guy R Brewer Boulevard and Mathias Avenue, cops said.

The NYPD released surveillance photos of the groper, who police described as a 40-to-50-year-old man standing between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 and weighing around 150 pounds. He had short dread locks, a beard and glasses and was last seen wearing a tan trench coat in addition to the purple scarf.

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

(Lead photo via NYPD)