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'I was terrified': Woman says man exposed himself at Piedmont Park

ATLANTA — A woman told Channel 2 Action News she saw a man exposing himself on a running trail in Piedmont Park.

"He was hiding in the shadows but on the path. I was terrified," she told Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez.

The victim asked Jaquez not to use her name because the man who she says exposed himself while she was exercising at the popular park is still on the loose.

Even scarier, she says, he did this while terrorizing her with a large wooden staff.

“I had a lot of thoughts in my head. I thought, 'He’s going to hit me over the head, I’ll be rendered unconscious, and drug into the woods and raped,'" the woman said.

It happened on Tuesday around 6:30 a.m.

The married mother was with her local running club at the park when she got ahead of the group.

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“I stopped and started to walk and came around the corner where it’s very wooded and dark. He was standing there and had himself fully exposed," she said.

Scared for her life, the avid runner said she ran as fast as she could to safety, all while looking for an emergency call box. When she didn’t find one, she said she was forced to hop into her car and rush home to call the police.

"I also contacted Piedmont Park and actually learned there are no call boxes in the entire park. It was quite a shock," she said.

She posted about the flasher on Next Door, and when she did, other residents and parkgoers came forward, saying they have seen him too.

"To have a park that opens that early and closes that late. You ought to have some safety measures that go beyond lighting," she said.