Aistė Sarokienė experienced a real nightmare on Monday evening – the woman shares that after returning from Raimedas Latvis’s collection presentation, she was stalked and attacked near her home. She reported the incident to the police.
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On Thursday it became clear that the man who stalked her was detained and handed over to medical personnel. This was reported on social networks by S. Vaitulionis, who shared a photo with the officers.
“Thank you, Lithuanian police, the man who attacked Aistė Sarokienė this morning was detained,” he wrote.
On Monday evening, returning home to Fabijoniškės, Aistė was looking for a place to park her car for a while. Suddenly, an unknown man appeared near her car – he kept appearing either in front of the windshield or the rear window of the car.
Aistė waited in the car until the man left, but after getting out of the car, it turned out that the man was stalking her – as she walked away, he started following her. The frightened woman began shouting across the entire yard.
“It was evening, so there was no one in the parking lot. Aistė saw some car and started running towards it – the man ran after her. Fortunately, she managed to run into the stairwell, correctly enter the door code, and slam the door right in front of his eyes, as he was just a step away from her. He also tried to grab her by the hand – it’s unclear how it could have ended. She got into the elevator because the man appeared in the stairwell. It turns out he lives there,” Saugirdas Vaitulionis told his followers.
The police took action only after the story was made public
The situation was further described by A. Sarokienė herself, sharing posts also with Žmonės.lt readers.
“I was followed and attacked near Vėtrungių St. 95,” Aistė wrote in a post on the Facebook community of Fabijoniškės.
She did not hide that she reported the incident to the police by filing a statement. However, the police’s actions shocked her.
“I was left unharmed, not raped, not injured, not robbed. The decision was made – it turns out this is not a criminal act. So anyone can follow, scare, chase, threaten.
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My everyday life has become fear for my and my children’s safety because the attacker lives in my stairwell. I no longer trust law enforcement, but I trust publicity,” she wrote, sharing a message from the police that the investigation will not be initiated.
“The police hadn’t even come to him (I know because I later supplemented the statement with which apartment he lives in). There have been more than one attacks on women, women with children, but they didn’t even come to him because this is not a criminal act.
We all have to be afraid to leave the house because I don’t know when I will meet him in the elevator. How should I behave in the elevator with him when I have children? My only wish is to find tenants (hoping he rents the apartment) so that they would just throw him out of that apartment. I promise to find others, much better tenants, and pay extra,” Aistė said.
However, it later became clear that the police reacted to the incident only after it was made public.
“Aistė wrote that the police appeared and will start an investigation after all. I keep thinking: why do you have to cause a scandal for things to happen? Why can’t you just do your job properly from the start? Only when a scandal arises do we do something,” S. Vaitulionis asked.
The police responded
The portal Žmonės.lt contacted police representatives. Tomas Bražėnas, senior specialist of the Communications Division of the Vilnius County Chief Police Commissariat, informed that information is currently being collected for the investigation.
“Officers of the 5th Police Station of Vilnius city have received reports of similar acts. The woman informed the officers that on the specified street in Vilnius city, she repeatedly notices a man behaving inadequately, whose behavior causes a feeling of insecurity among those around.
The officers are taking actions to identify the person in question and are also collecting material under Article 284 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania,” he commented to Žmonės.lt.
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