Man allegedly exposes himself to children in Northeast Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police are searching for a man accused of exposing himself to two children.
Authorities say the suspect lured the victims away from their home by asking if they would help him collect donations.
Paula Berenholz, of Northeast Philadelphia, says she didn't think much of it when a man showed up at her door last Tuesday evening with two children, asking her to support a charity.
Her doorbell video reveals that the man did not know those children.
You can hear him say to the little boy, "What's your name? You're very handsome."
Berenholz returned with a few dollars and they walked away.
A few hours later, a man identifying himself as the father of those children rang her doorbell, saying he didn't realize his nine-year-old son and his five-year-old daughter walked away with a stranger.
Berenholz says, "(That man) happened to expose himself to the children... The father told me that," Berenholz explained.
Investigators say the incident occurred a few moments later when the man allegedly lured the children behind a neighbor's house on the 8500 block of Castor Avenue.
Apparently, that man rang a lot of doorbells before coming into contact with those kids.
"He just came to the door asking for donations. I obliged. I just gave him a couple of dollars and that was basically it," said Dan Tsurtsuris, who lives nearby.
Another neighbor, Irina Vassalotti, said, "I could not really read what was on the bucket, and I thought there's something strange. Something fishy here. So, I let it go."
The Philadelphia Police's Special Victims Unit is actively investigating this case as neighbors here try to process the accusation.
"To me, that's just hard to believe that somebody, anybody, would do something like that to children like that. It's unthinkable," said Tsurtsuris.
The children involved were not physically injured.
Anyone who recognizes the man in that video is asked to contact the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit.
