Man Followed Woman Into Store Bathroom and Harassed Her, Police Say

Note: This story has been updated with additional information provided by the alleged victim in the incident, at her request and for purposes of clarification.

A Giant Food Store employee will be charged with harassment and disorderly conduct, Lower Saucon Township Police say, after he allegedly followed a female employee into a restroom at the Leithsville Road supermarket and attempted to make sexual advances toward her.

Police said the incident occurred Thursday shortly before 11 p.m., when Mehdi Pour, 32, of the 1500 block of Crest Park Court, Bethlehem, allegedly entered a female employee restroom after the woman did and knocked on a bathroom stall where she was preparing to change out of a work uniform.

The woman–who said she was talking to her boyfriend on the phone at the time–opened “the door slightly to see who it was and saw Mehdi,” police said. “Mehdi then began trying to push the stall door open about three times while stating ‘let’s finish what we started.'”

After telling him that he “needed to go,” police said the woman was able to push past him and run to get help from other store employees.

Authorities added that “Mehdi admitted that he was trying to make sexual advances to the victim since he likes her.”

The woman–who spoke exclusively to Saucon Source–stressed that she and Pour “had no previous relationship or even a greeting exchange of any sort.”

On Thursday she said she’d had no contact with Pour prior to the alleged incident, until about 10:50 p.m., when she began to prepare to leave for the night.

As she was speaking to a coworker, she said Pour “came up behind us and she asked him if he needed help with anything, and he said something about looking at his schedule.”

She then went upstairs to the employee area, and heard him following behind, she said.

Pour was ordered not to have any contact with the woman, police said.