A teenage girl traveling to the Yellowstone National Park area for a family vacation was repeatedly groped by a man on her flight to Montana last week, federal authorities charged.
The suspect, 76-year-old Vincent Kopacek, allegedly touched the 15-year-old victim while he was sitting in the seat behind her on the July 8 flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, according to charging documents against him.
Before the flight took off, Kopacek placed his hands on the girl’s seat — then began to “touch her body as the flight progressed,” an affidavit filed by FBI agents who investigated the case states.
“Shortly after takeoff, [Kopacek] grabbed and squeezed her arm,” the affidavit states.
“He then moved his hand between her arm and her torso, brushed his fingers along her torso and grabbed her waist. At some point, the male touched her chest and groped her breast over her clothes,” it adds.
The traumatized teen, identified as “AG” in the documents, adjusted her body several times to avoid his hands and got up to go to the bathroom to get away from him, the documents state.
The quick-thinking girl also took some 20 short videos and several photos to document the alleged groping, according to the feds.
“In at least one video, the hand is groping AG over her shirt while AG looks at her phone,” the documents state.
She also snapped another photo of him while walking to the baggage claim.
The teen told her parents about the incident when they arrived at their hotel, who then called the police.
Authorities tracked the alleged sicko down and charged him assault, abusive sexual contact, and attempted sexual abuse of a minor.
He was cut loose from jail at an initial federal court appearance in Montana, according to court documents.