Female worker caught on hotel surveillance camera fending off masked intruder
The female employee was able to rip off the intruder's mask.
— -- Surveillance video captured the moment a woman working the night shift at a Nebraska hotel was able to fend off a masked intruder.
Security footage from the Home2 Suites Omaha West in Omaha, Nebraska, shows a masked man lurking in the hotel's lobby on Feb. 28. The victim, a female front desk employee, can be seen on camera walking down a hallway when the masked attacker peers around the corner and follows her down the same hallway.
The suspect and the victim, who was not publicly identified, are then seen on camera struggling. The female employee fights back as the suspect tries to force her into a nearby bathroom. The woman then rips the mask off the suspect, according to police.
Authorities say they were able to identify the suspect as 29-year-old Zachary Lee Person because of the woman's action.
Person was arrested and is currently in jail on a $1 million bond as he awaits sentencing in a different case. Person is a registered sex offender wanted for multiple assaults in multiple states, according to authorities.
"He was pending sentencing for similar attacks on female joggers, students and gas station employees in South Dakota and Nebraska between 2007 and 2017," Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning said in a news conference last week.
Person was also involved in an incident where a man exposed himself in a women's bathroom on a college campus in Sioux City, Iowa, according to police. This alleged incident occurred just hours after the Nebraska hotel case, police said.
Self-defense and safety expert Jarrett Arthur told ABC News what people should do if they find themselves in a scenario similar to the female hotel employee.
"You want to use parts of your body to strike with, such as your elbows and your knees, and you want to aim for soft vulnerable areas on their body -- their eyes nose, throat and groin," Arthur said.
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