Text message saves woman from groper

Iruma, Japan -- A 19-year-old woman in Tokyo said she managed to escape a groper on an area train by text-messaging a friend for help.

The unidentified woman said that when she felt the hands of a 59-year-old man under her skirt, she frantically text-messaged a male friend who quickly boarded the train and caught the man, the Japan Times said Thursday.

Police said that the 19-year-old acquaintance of the woman not only managed to free his friend but kept the suspect in custody until he could be given to local authorities.

The alleged groper said he was drunk at the time of the incident on Tokyo's Seibu Ikebukuro line but admitted being attracted to the young woman.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.