A mother and daughter ran from a man who was exposing himself and then began following them in a Greenwood neighborhood.
Greenwood police were called to the area of Maple Grove Drive and Emerson Avenue, just north of Main Street near Interstate 65, by a bus driver the woman had run to for help.
A mother had been walking her 13-year-old daughter to her bus stop on Emerson Avenue just before 7:30 a.m. on Monday, and had noticed a man walking along the road. She lost sight of him, and then saw him when they turned a corner and he was coming towards them with his pants down, according to the Greenwood Police Department report.
The mother and daughter ran away and into a neighboring yard, and the man followed them, scaling fences to try to get to them, the woman told police.
She then saw the bus, ran to it and asked the driver to call police because she did not have her phone with her, the report said.
When officers came to the area, they found a man walking along Emerson Avenue with his pants halfway down, according to the report.
The man, Ryan Drury, 34, of Louisville, Kentucky, told police he had been walking for two weeks to get to northwest Indiana to find work, the report.
Drury told police he had stopped to urinate earlier, but that no one had seen him, the report said.
Police had received other calls about a suspicious looking man in the area, looking at houses, the report said.
The officer looked up Drury’s criminal history, which showed multiple burglary and assault charges, the report said.
Drury was cited for a misdemeanor charge of public indecency, according to the report. Drury, 1133 St. Michael St., was not arrested.
For certain misdemeanor crimes, police can not arrest the suspect if the officer did not witness the crime, such as in this case, Greenwood Police Assistant Chief Matt Fillenwarth said.
Since the officer did not witness the crime, his options were to issue a summons to Drury to appear in court or apply for an arrest warrant, Fillenwarth said.
