After a Sox Game

BROOKLINE - A 27-year-old woman walking home alone from a Red Sox game Thursday night was assaulted and briefly abducted in a residential neighborhood of mostly clapboard houses here, where safety has become an increasing concern.

The woman was walking down a stretch of Winchester Street between Coolidge Corner and the Allston line at about 11:30 when she encountered a man she did not know, police said. The woman, who police said was drunk at the time, did not know whether he had been walking behind or in front of her or had jumped from behind a bush, police said.

The woman described the man as Hispanic with short, slicked-back, curly hair and a round face.

At first, the encounter seemed friendly. The man struck up a conversation about the Sox, but then the situation quickly turned dangerous as the two stood in front of a house with a cement staircase.

"All of a sudden, he grabs her and throws her against the steps, and he indecently touched her," said Captain John O'Leary of the Brookline police. "He then grabbed her again and dragged her into a mid-sized gray SUV with three guys inside."

The man punched the woman in the face twice before the door was shut, and the men sped away with her inside, police said

The van traveled only about 20 yards, crossing into Allston, before the woman jumped out at a traffic light.

"She opened the door," O'Leary said, "and they didn't say anything."

The woman ran to a friend's house, O'Leary said, and called police. She declined medical treatment, he said.

O'Leary said the episode should serve as a reminder that people need to be especially cautious when walking alone at night and that talking on a cellphone, listening to an iPod, or being drunk could put them at greater risk.

"We think intoxication was an issue with her judgment," O'Leary said.

The attack took place just two houses down from where a woman was sexually assaulted about a year ago, O'Leary said. Two other women also were assaulted on Winchester Street about the same time, he said, prompting police to turn to the news media. The attacks then stopped. In those cases, the women were either using a cellphone or an iPod, O'Leary said.

A neighbor or group recently circulated fliers around the neighborhood, encouraging residents to keep their porch lights on at night. The neighborhood is not far from where several young women have been robbed recently near or on the Boston University campus.

"It makes me nervous," said Maria Edwards, who moved to the neighborhood this week, as she reflected on Thursday's attack.

But she added' "I feel that sort of thing could happen anywhere. . . . You need to be aware of who's around you when you walk alone at night."