Police are investigating more than 10 sexual assaults reported around University City (UC) and UC San Diego over the past year, officials announced Tuesday. Ten women in the University Town Center area and five women on campus have described similar incidents, UCSD Police said. In summer 2008, about five UC women reported a college-aged man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt sneaking up behind them, grabbing their groin and buttocks and then fleeing, according to a Nov. 20, 2008 San Diego Police Department release. Most women described the attacker’s backside, police said. “The crimes occurred during darkness between the hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” UCSDPD said regarding the five UTC incidents. Then the groper began targeting college students. From Nov. 25 through Dec. 8, 2008, a female student reported the first sexual attack on campus. Two to four other women reported similar additional attacks. A woman student said she was cutting through the campus’s eucalyptus grove near the student health center Monday, Dec. 8 at about 6 p.m. when a male ran behind her and grabbed her groin and buttocks area, UCSDPD said. The woman screamed and turned but her attacker was running away. “The female described the suspect as a college-age male with an average build, wearing a dark-colored, hooded sweatshirt and loose-fitting jeans,” UCSDPD said, adding that the attacker did not use a weapon. “This incident and suspect are similar to a series of sexual battery cases in the University Town Center area.” Ten University City women reported that a man either exposed himself or groped them in well-lit areas near Regents Road and Arriba Street, a San Diego Police Department bulletin said. “[Police] currently have no reason to believe these crimes are related to the rape that occurred at Mesa Housing on Nov. 7, 2008,” UCSDPD said. Police linked the Nov. 7 UCSD rape to a series of attacks near the university. The alleged rapist targeted lone Asian women entering their home, UCSD police said. Victims said he was white or Hispanic. Another woman reported a sexual assault Feb. 19, 2009 inside a UCSD parking lot, describing a college-age Asian attacker. “The suspect approaches the victim and either grabs her buttocks or crotch area; and-or exposes himself and then flees the area,” San Diego Police Department Capt. Shelley Zimmerman said in a press release. The man attacked or exposed himself to women in well-lit areas near Regents Road at Arriba Street and at the university, said District 1 San Diego City Council member Sherri Lightner. According to Lightner, police are increasing presence in the area. Lightner said she is working with police to catch the predator. Although one woman described the alleged groper as Asian, SDPD reported the attacker as a 20- to 25-year-old Hispanic or Middle Eastern man, 5-feet-4 to 5-feet-10 inches tall. Police are offering up to $1,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest, and are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers, (888) 552-1700, or visit www.sdcrimestoppers.com.