PALO ALTO (KRON) — Palo Alto police have arrested a man accused of harassing a teenage girl in a parking lot, according to Sgt. James Reifschneider.
Police said the man made inappropriate comments to the 17-year-old girl on Sunday at about 1:59 p.m. at the city’s parking lot C-7, located at 350 Sherman Avenue. When officers were called to the scene, they detained the suspect, who was identified as 50-year-old Kenneth Nelson Porter, of Oakland.
Reifschneider said Porter approached the victim in the parking lot and made the inappropriate comments to her, including asking if she had a boyfriend.
Police said they encountered the suspect earlier that afternoon in the 300 block of California Avenue when he went up to a group of 8-year-old Girl Scouts selling cookies. Porter made a parent uncomfortable when he leaned down to within 2 feet of a girl’s face and mumbled something to her, police said.
The parent called police, who told Porter to leave the girls alone. Police let him go in that instance since they determined no crime had occurred.
Porter was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail for one count of misdemeanor annoying children.