Suspected child predator asks woman if he 'could have' her daughter at Santa Ana laundromat

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A suspected child predator asked a woman at a Santa Ana laundromat if he "could have" her daughter before groping other children at the location, police said.

It all started Monday afternoon when a concerned bystander told a Santa Ana police officer about a man on a bicycle who had just touched three juvenile females' buttocks as he passed them on a sidewalk.

That police officer spotted the suspect, chased him down and detained him.

During the course of the investigation, police learned that the suspect, 28-year-old Alan Flores, had approached a woman with her two young children earlier in the day and asked if he "could have" her 6-year-old daughter.

The child's mother and a bystander intervened and deterred Flores from attacking the 6-year-old. However, Flores then touched a different child and groped at least two more children outside, investigators said.

Flores was booked on charges of annoying or molesting a victim under the age of 18, touching a person intimately against his or her will for sexual arousal and attempted kidnapping of a child under the age of 14.