Philadelphia

Police Find Bucks County. Home Invasion, Groping Suspect in Abandoned Car

Working on tips after releasing surveillance video, police just outside Philadelphia charged a homeless man with sexually assaulting a mother during a home invasion.

Bensalem Township Police said Tuesday that tips lead them to an abandoned car parked in Philadelphia where they found 21-year-old Derrick Anderson.

The homeless man is believed to be the man that a Bensalem mother managed to fight off after he broke into her apartment and sexually assaulted her while her daughter was sleeping. [[403478246, C]]

Officers responded to an apartment at Lafayette Gardens along Bristol Pike in Bensalem around 5 a.m. Saturday, said Bensalem Police. The woman and her daughter were sleeping when they found an intruder, said police.

"My first memory is I was awake and there was a man in my living room," said the woman, who NBC10 chose not to identify.

The victim fought back in an attempt to get the intruder to leave. He then hit her, grabbed her by the throat and sexually assaulted her, police said. The woman then managed to get him out of the house and he was last seen on video running away from her apartment.

"I don't know how long he was in the house," she said. "As I was pushing him out the door he tried to grope me. My daughter waking up, that was the key that scared him enough to be able to give me the strength and the opportunity to get him out of the house but it happened so fast."

"This woman is incredibly brave that she was able to fight him off," said Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran. "Probably a mother's instinct jumping in, and protecting her daughter."

Investigators found surveillance video from a Sunoco gas station at Frankford Avenue and Knights Road in Northeast Philadelphia that shows the suspect, said police. The woman said the man was wearing the same brown coat he was wearing in the surveillance video when he sexually assaulted her. She also said she never met the man before.

A judge arraigned Anderson on burglary, trespassing, indecent assault and related charges Tuesday morning, said online court records. Bail was set at 10 percent of $200,000.

Police thanked the public for directing them to Anderson.

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