Bloomington police are investigating a reported sexual battery near East Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street after a food delivery worker said a stranger groped her as she walked back to her car Monday afternoon. The location is a few blocks from Indiana University's campus.
According to the Indiana Daily Student, the woman reported the incident Tuesday, a day after it allegedly occurred. Per an email from Bloomington Police Department Deputy Chief Ryan Pedigo, the alleged battery happened at 2:17 p.m. Monday, according to the IU Bloomington crime log, placing it squarely in the middle of a weekday afternoon in one of the city's busiest pedestrian corridors.
The woman told police she had picked up a delivery order and was returning to her car when a group she believed to be college-age men approached, according to the Indiana Daily Student's account of Pedigo's email. She alleged that one person in the group rubbed his groin against her leg as they passed; the group then walked away.
Investigators Turn to Nearby Business Cameras
The officer assigned to the case is seeking footage from a nearby business, the Indiana Daily Student reported. Police have not publicly identified a suspect or provided an update on whether they obtained the video.
The stretch of East Kirkwood Avenue near Dunn Street sits close to the edge of IU's campus, an area that sees heavy foot traffic from students, delivery workers, and downtown Bloomington visitors throughout the day.
Part of a Broader Pattern Tracked on Campus
The Indiana Daily Student has also reported sexual-violence figures from IU Bloomington. It found 60 cases of sexual assault recorded by the IU Police Department in 2024, and separately counted 35 sexual-violence reports on the IUPD Daily Log during fall 2025 and 23 during spring 2026.
The outlet also reported five IUPD sexual-violence reports over the summer it covered. Those included a report filed June 26 concerning an alleged assault at Bradford Woods in Martinsville between June 21 and June 26, and a June 29 report by the Office of Civil Rights Compliance concerning an alleged assault at the Walnut Grove Center on June 25.
How IU crime reporting differs
Bloomington police are identified as the agency investigating this case; IU's guidance does not establish a boundary between the departments. The Indiana University Police Department says its daily crime log covers crimes reported to campus police in specified campus-related locations or within campus police patrol jurisdiction. IU's Clery guidance also covers specified locations, including public property within or immediately adjacent to campus. The incident's location, or its appearance in a log, does not by itself establish whether it is included in IU campus statistics or which agency is investigating. See the IUPD crime-log guidance and IU's Clery information. Separately, the Indiana Daily Student reported that IU Bloomington's 2025 annual security report counted 14 on-campus fondling cases, down from 26 in 2024. Those annual-report figures are distinct from the daily-log counts of sexual-violence reports described above, according to the Indiana Daily Student.
It remains unclear whether the Kirkwood Avenue case will be reflected in those ongoing campus-area tallies, and no information has been released about the woman's identity or condition following the alleged encounter.
