Messing with the WRONG girl!

Sometimes you read a story in the newspaper or catch a glimpse of the evening news and it puts a smile on your face.  It got a smile outta me.  I thought to myself, "Atta girl!"  Well last night while trying to sleep I caught this story on the news.  Read it this morning in the paper.  And I have to say, this sicko messed with the wrong woman.  Kudos to her for fighting back and chasing this dummy.  Brave girl.

Woman runs after, helps nab attacker

Man now suspect in 6 other assaults

By Mark Arner and Susan Shroder

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

Originally published 2:00 a.m. July 2, 2009, updated 9:23 a.m., July 2, 2009

Update

San Diego police said DNA test results for Thomas Parker could be available Thursday. Additional charges may be filed based on the results of those tests, police said.

Parker, who owns It's a Grind Coffee House in Little Italy, is married with two children, police Capt. Jim Collins said.

Phone calls to the coffee house Thursday morning were not answered.

A marathon runner chased a man who tried to attack her in her garage, and authorities are saying he may be connected to a series of similar assaults.

Thomas Parker, 39, of Tierrasanta, was arrested on suspicion of assault with intent to commit rape, robbery, burglary and false imprisonment, San Diego police said.

Parker's description matches that of the suspect in six similar robberies and attacks on Asian women during the past year, police said. The woman in yesterday's incident is white.

The woman, 33, had returned from shopping and was in the garage at her condo complex near Fenton Parkway and Friars Road in Mission Valley about 1:30 p.m. when a man grabbed her and threatened her with a knife. He started to close the garage door, but the woman fought back and hit the garage-door button to keep the door open, Capt. Jim Collins said.

When the assailant ran, the woman gave chase. She flagged down others driving nearby, and three of them joined her in the pursuit. An off-duty Border Patrol agent stopped at a traffic light got out of his vehicle, joined in the chase and arrested Parker.

“Obviously she determined that she didn't want to be a victim, so she fought back,” Collins said of the woman. “She yelled, screamed, she chased him. She is a marathon runner, so she could have caught him, but she remained a safe distance away” until his arrest.

The woman was slightly injured but did not require immediate medical attention, police said.

Another woman was sexually assaulted April 28 in her Mission Valley apartment in what police said at the time might have been the sixth in a series of such attacks. In all the cases, the man used a knife and demanded money. In all but one case, he raped, sexually assaulted or threatened to sexually assault the victims.

The first incident was reported June 6, 2008, in the College Area. The second occurred Nov. 7, 2008, at the University of California San Diego's Mesa graduate student housing complex. Both women were raped.

The third attack was o Jan. 16 in Tierrasanta. The fourth happened Feb. 10 in Carmel Valley, and the fifth was March 4 on Carmel View Road.

All happened between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

In yesterday's attack, the assailant dropped a folding knife that he had used in the woman's garage, and it was collected as evidence, Collins said.