

Amara McLaughlin, CP24.com





Police are looking for a man believed to be in his 20s who allegedly stalked a 13-year-old girl walking her dog into her home’s backyard in north Toronto on Tuesday morning.

It happened in a neighbourhood near Lawrence Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road around 7:45 a.m.

The girl was walking her dog in the residential area when she noticed something wasn’t quite right, Toronto police say.

“A couple houses away from her own home she noticed a man and she had a feeling about him, but she kept walking, then she shortly realized he was following her,” said Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook, a spokesperson for Toronto police.

Investigators said the girl was “concerned for her own safety” so she rushed home, entering through the backyard. The suspect proceeded to pursue her there.

Inside the home, the girl told her mother about the incident, who then proceeded to confront the man standing in the backyard.

“Mom yelled at him and he fled, but when Mom followed him around, he was still at the side of the house, crouched beside the air conditioner, Mom yelled at him again,” said Douglas-Cook.

“It’s obviously very concerning.”

The suspect is described as a white man between the ages of 20 and 25, with brown hair and a goatee. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie with white on the front, and black pants.

A home’s security footage shows walking along the sidewalk and around the back of a house.

Police released it on Friday in hopes of identifying the man wanted in a criminal harassment investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-5300 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477.