NASHUA, N.H. — A predator on the loose in Nashua has people in the area on guard.
Two random attacks were reported in popular shopping plazas in broad daylight – and one of the victims just 17 years old.
Nashua Police are hoping surveillance images of the suspect will help lead to an arrest.
Police say while that teenage victim was working in a store, a man walked in and groped her.
Surveillance footage is linked to an even more brazen attack, at the Pheasant Lane Mall about an hour earlier.
"Obviously, this is the type of incident that can strike fear in individuals, especially females," Nashua Police Detective Lt. Daniel Mederos.
Mederos says the man responsible first targeted a mother in her 30s as she loaded shopping bags into her car in a parking garage at the Pheasant Lane Mall, around 3 p.m. Sunday.
"He placed one hand over her mouth, one over her waist," Mederos said.
The woman, who was with her two kids under the age of 5, screamed and fought back, sending the attacker scrambling.
Investigators say an hour later, he was at it again, and inappropriately touched a 17-year-old on the job at a nearby store.
“I’d bash him in the head. I wouldn’t think twice about it, trust me. I have more skills than that man could ever dream of having on my little pinky," said one shopper, Vincenzo, when asked about the reported assaults.
Shock and anger are now growing in this community as people put a face to the crimes.
"It happens fast, the people that do it. They have their craft down so well," said shopper Johnna Grzywacz.
Police are hoping for help from the public as investigators actively search for this man.