Bus rider shames alleged groper with cellphone photos

The bus ride home for one woman turned from uncomfortable to downright inappropriate on Wednesday.

Alicia Sabovik told Q13 that she was on the 511 bus from Seattle to Lynnwood when a man sat next to her on a fairly empty bus. He then began groping her, with a shirt over his hands so other riders couldn’t see.

Is that what happens to people who ride public transportation? KIRO Radio’s John Curley asked Tom Tangney, who is a daily bus rider. When someone boards the bus, does the bus driver say please sit down, give up your seat to someone who may need it, and prepare to be groped?

“Of course not,” Tom said. However, the woman should have been alerted by the man deciding to sit right next to her on an empty bus.

Sabovik explained that she “just froze” when the man began touching her. She froze for about an hour. But then she acted.

She took out her phone and took a photo of the man, who seemed to become “visibly afraid.” She has since posted the photos on her Facebook page.

Cellphones can be more effective than pepper spray, Tom pointed out. Now the man’s photo is out on social media and in the hands of law enforcement.

Sabovik said she recalled the story of a woman posting pictures after being groped in Seattle’s Westlake Center in Oct. 2014.

Let’s put Tom in a similar situation.

OK, Tom, you’re a woman on a bus, Curley described. Not only that, you’re the only woman on a bus. Then a man sits next to you. Do you get up?

“Yes,” Tom responds. He would sit next to the bus driver right away.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the allegation and trying to obtain bus surveillance cameras.

If you have information about the suspect, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.