What would you do if, while jogging, someone exposed himself to you?
When this happens to anyone, the person in question needs to be reported right away to the police. It doesn’t matter if the person doesn’t have any photographic evidence or witnesses to back up their report. According to Sergeant Buthorn of the NYPD Press Office, as told to Gothamist, incidents such as this “suggests the suspect’s actions are part of a pattern and could net him higher charges.”
“Even if you can’t remember how the perpetrator looks like, inform the police so that we can patrol the area and warn others,” Asst. Comm Ong Chin Lan said.
But let’s face it. Incidents like this are traumatic and most of the time, people, especially women, just want to get as far away from the flasher as much as possible, as fast as they can.
This man, though, picked the wrong victim to flash on this particular Thursday morning in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Aia Polansky was having a great morning. She was running at Riverside Park, along the Charles River and Memorial Drive, near Vassar Street around 7:30 am on July 18, 2019. She was listening to an audiobook and she was ready to take charge of her day.
She spied a disturbing sight coming towards her.
A man was jogging towards her, exposing himself. And when he got near Aia, he did it again and this time grabbed her arm, too. The first time, she assumed, was unintentional, she said, but once she saw him expose himself a second time, she knew it was on purpose.
“It was not his lucky day cause I decided that’s just not going to happen and I decided to chase him,” Aia told CBS Boston.
Unfortunately for this man, he picked the worst victim. Not only is Aia a 6 feet tall woman, but she is also a former Israeli military soldier.
“I told him I’m going to get him: ‘I’m going to get you, darling!'” Aia recalled.
Aia was already running pretty fast when the man exposed himself so she was able to catch up to him easily. She held the man down for a few minutes and called to the people around to call 911.
“At least four people went by, nobody reacted, nobody did anything,” she said. “I’m holding the guy down nobody is doing anything I had to do something.”
Since nobody was helping her, she called 911.
But when she was getting her phone, she had to release on of her hands that pinned him down and he was able to run off. He was last seen running down Amesbury Street.
Aia was very disappointed with the lack of action from the people nearby.
“Where I come from and how I grew up, we don’t just walk by. We don’t just ignore it … I have a daughter, and it could be my daughter next to him — and she’s not going to be that,” Aia said.
While the police would suggest people call the police or 911 to report this guy instead of holding down the attacker, they do agree this was a special situation.
She reacted in the blink of an eye what she felt was the best form of action. Good for her. I think she put the fear of god in the guy,” State Police Trooper James DeAngelis said.
Aia was able to get a good luck at the attacker, although she wasn’t able to get any identification. She described him as a white male with a heavy build, short, dark hair and was wearing black and gray running gear.
“It was long enough for me to notice his brand new Apple Watch, Air Pods, the fact that he looks like a completely — the professor, teacher right next door to you and this was just … very surprising to me,” Aia told ABC.
Why do people, especially men, have an exhibitionist tendency and expose themselves to non-consenting victims?
Many exhibitionists are driven by the thrill of exposing themselves alone, along with the reaction they receive from witnesses as they’re caught off-guard.
“For a lot of guys [who] are exposing themselves, as ridiculous as it seems, it is about the act of exposing yourself to someone who isn’t expecting it that is sexually arousing,” Dr. Darrel Turner, a clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in sexual offenses, said in an interview with Mic.
If ever this type of incident happens to you, try to react neutrally to turn them off.
If you must react, give them a look of disgust and not shock or surprise. Get away from the attacker as quickly as you can and report to the police immediately.
If they grab you, scream for help and run away.
If they grab you and can’t escape, fake a seizure or wet yourself or any action to turn off the attacker’s fantasy.
Watch the video below to learn more about what happened and how Aia Polansky defended herself.
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