(STMW) — A man grabbed a 13-year-old and sexually assaulted her in a vehicle Monday morning on the West Side, then drove her home and threatened to burn her house down if she didn’t get him money.

A man approached a 13-year-old girl walking east on West Race Street toward North Parkside Avenue about 7:15 a.m., asked her name and said he has been watching her, according to an alert from Area North detectives.

The man then grabbed the young girl around the neck, told her he had a gun and walked her to his parked car in the 400 block of North Parkside Avenue, where he forced her inside the vehicle and sexually assaulted her, police said.

The attacker then drove the girl home and told her to get money or he would burn the house down, police said. The girl went inside and called police and the attacker fled before police arrived.

The man is described as a 23- to 27-year-old black man between 6-feet-2 and 6-feet-3 and 180 to 200 pounds, police said. He has brown eyes, black hair worn in chin-length dreadlocks, a slight beard and a mustache.

The attacker was wearing a black skullcap, black hooded-sweatshirt and black sweatpants, police said. He was driving an older-model, mid- to large-size white car.

Anyone with information about the attack should call Area North detectives at (312) 744-8261.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)