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Police are searching for a man they believe exposed himself to a local middle-school-aged girl twice in the span of about 14 months.

The man first reportedly exposed himself to the girl in February 2011, and then again on May 7, 2012, Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie said. In both incidents the victim told police the man was driving in a red Jeep, with a similar haircut and overall look.

The girl, who was 12 at the time of the first incident, never told anyone what she saw, Wylie said. According to her retelling of the original incident, the girl was walking home from school near the Whisman Sports Pavilion on Middlefield Road when a man pulled up alongside her and exposed himself while he sat inside his red SUV, which police believe may be a Jeep Cherokee. The girl ran away and never told her parents, the school or police.

On Monday, May 7, the now 13-year-old girl was walking home from Crittenden Middle School at about 3:30 p.m. when a man driving a red Jeep pulled up next to her and exposed himself while he sat in the vehicle, Wylie said. The girl fled again and this time reported what she had seen to her parents and the school. School officials reported the incident to the Mountain View Police Department.

The girl described the man similarly in each case -- in his 50s, with medium-length gray hair and a gray mustache, wearing a black baseball cap, a gray shirt and blue shorts, Wylie said. The man did not try to lure the girl into the Jeep either time.

Police have released a composite sketch of the man. Officers are currently investigating the incident and are welcoming tips -- anonymous or not -- from the community. Anyone with information may call 650-903-6395.

"Although this case sounds a little odd at first, given the description of the suspect is the same in both cases even though the crimes occurred one year apart, the MVPD believes both of these crimes occurred," Wylie wrote in an email to the Voice.

— Mountain View Voice staff

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