MANCHESTER, N.H. — A man is accused of breaking into a woman’s bedroom and trying to sexually assault her while she slept Thursday, and police believe he may be connected to similar break-ins in the area.
Police arrested 20-year-old Gilberto Gutierrez-Mendez at a home on Silver Street after a woman reported waking up just before 3 a.m. to a man she didn’t know inside her bedroom, according to Manchester police.
“She heard a noise and when she looked on her bedside she saw a man lying there,” said Heather Hamel, public information officer for the Manchester Police Department. When the woman told him to leave, Gutierrez-Mendez attempted to sexually assault her, and finally left when her teenage son walked into the room, the woman told police.
“I happen to forget to lock the door and he said ‘Oh, I’m very sorry. I’m drunk, I have the wrong house.’ I thought it was an honest mistake although there was a part of me that said maybe he was trying to do something,” he said. “My girlfriend was in the other room sleeping.”
Detectives are investigating reports of other recent break-ins nearby, including one where a resident said he woke up in the middle of the night last month and found a man inside his home.
Police said Gutierrez-Mendez is believed to be connected to a similar break-in Wednesday, at separate home on Spring Street, that happened while the tenants were sleeping. Many neighbors say they bought security cameras after the recent incidents.
Gutierrez-Mendez has been charged with two counts of felony burglary and one count of attempted sexual assault.
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