Woman gives assailant a dip in lake

COEUR d’ALENE — Before the guy knew it, he went from trying to score some illegal “XOXO” to being scored on the losing end of a TKO.

An intoxicated man who sprang out from hiding and fondled a woman’s breast on the Coeur d’Alene Resort boardwalk just before midnight Friday soon found himself clocked in the jaw, elbowed in the head and knocked right into the lake.

The 24-year-old woman, who did not wish to be identified, was walking alone on what is the world’s longest floating boardwalk just after midnight Friday. She was looking for her sister.

“My sister’s a Marine,” the woman said, “and she came home for a visit. We went out to the Iron Horse for some drinks and dancing.”

Then the sister disappeared with some friends. The 24-year-old and her mom wanted to go get breakfast, so they went looking for the sister.

The woman was searching the boardwalk and had just passed the bridge that allows boat traffic in and out of the marina and was headed south, where the boardwalk extends into the lapping waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

She heard laughter and then a man jumped out from behind one of the large wooden planters and shouted “Aha!” she told police.

The man, who smelled of alcohol, grabbed the woman’s left breast, she told police. Instantly, the woman shot out a right fist and caught the man flush on the jaw with an uppercut.

“I told police the guy was about 6-foot, 6-1. I’m only, like, 5-4,” the woman said. But she was too angry to think about size disparity.

“I cold-cocked him. It was just instant,” she said. After getting clobbered the man wobbled a bit and leaned toward her. “I elbowed him in the cheek and he went right in the water,” the woman said.

The man fell into the water on the enclosed, marina side of the boardwalk. The open-water side of the boardwalk is protected by a waist-high railing.

The woman took off running and made it as far back as the bridge when she had a chilling thought, she said.

“I was freaking out, thinking the guy was drunk, and I just knocked him into the water. If he drowned, it would be all on me,” she said.

Then she heard the splash as he surfaced, and he began using unkind language to reflect upon her character.

Police said they were unable to find the man, who was described as white, about 6 feet tall or a couple inches taller, average build, clean shaven and with dark hair. He was said to be in his late 20s or early 30s in a white T-shirt and jeans.”Me and my sister were both raised to be strong women,” the woman said. She laughed and added, “And we were raised in Rathdrum, so that probably explains a lot.”