Police are looking for the visitor to an open house in Encino who was caught on camera abruptly pushing the real estate agent to the ground, and then bending over her as she screamed.
The shaken agent said she came to fear the man was trying to lure her into a backroom during the Sunday encounter.
Because of this, she went out the front door in view of a security camera, and convinced him it was time to go. But he was not ready.
The real estate agent did not want to be identified for fear of her safety.
In the video, she says, “You saw the house. you’re done. That’s it.”
He then looks up at the security camera.
She had her phone out to call for help and was relieved when they shook hands, believing he was on his way. But the video doesn’t end there.
“He pushed me, threw me down the stairs to the bushes,” she said.
She said when he leaned over, at first she thought he wanted to steal her necklace.
“I’m not really sure what I did. I just remember yelling loudly for help,” she said.
Apparently it was her yelling that drove him off.
The attack occurred around 3 p.m. Sunday in Encino.
The video, which is hard to watch, has sent shock waves through the real estate community.
“You wouldn’t imagine something like this would happen in daylight, especially when a camera is recording,” broker Bob Siegmeth said.
Siegmeth said after the attack, he plans to bring in a self defense trainer for his agents.
“I think the big thing is to educate our agents and make sure they know what’s going on,” he said.
The man had come to the same house for her open house there a week earlier. She said after she came outside, he kept asking her to return inside.
“He tried so many times and no way I was going inside,” she said.
She suffered bruises and abrasions to her knee, and painful injury to her back.
“I keep watching the video and crying,” she said.
The agent said the man appears to be in his 40s and is cross-eyed. She also said at one point spoke a few words of Arabic.
The Los Angeles Police Department is searching for the man.
Another agent said she believes she recognizes the man from his odd behavior at an earlier open house.
Photo Credit: NBCLA
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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