The Porirua community is on edge following a serious sexual assault.
A 65-year old woman, who lives on Waihemo, was the victim of a prolonged attack last Friday morning, after answering the door to a man claiming to be looking for his daughter.
Porirua city councillor Izzy Ford is urging residents to talk to police if they hear anything.
"At the moment the community is kind of on edge. The sooner we can find this person, the better it will be for our community."
Extra police are going door-to-door in Porirua today, hunting the offender who's described as a clean shaven Maori or Pacific Islander.
Waihemo Street resident Kaokao Makai Lautafi said police told her about it on Friday evening and that night there were security guards at the scene.
Mrs Makai Lautafi no longer feels safe in the area and had stopped going for walks around the block to exercise.
She knew the victim and hoped to see her at some point.
"We've had her over at our place a few times," Mrs Makai Lautafi said.
"We're just all gutted here. We just couldn't believe it happened to (the victim) and it happened on our street."
She heard the man might have been watching the woman's property and was likely drunk when he struck.
"I don't think she'll come back. It's sad really. We had that shooting on the other side," Mrs Makai Lautafi said of April's siege at Kokiri Cres.
"We're still trying to get over that. I can't believe this has now happened in our neighbourhood. I hope (the victim) is alright."
Local Niki Brewer is in shock, and can't believe something like this has happened.
"On Waihemo Street there's probably children in every other house and it just concerned me that this is what's happening around my children."
After hearing about the incident, Niki Brewer posted a message on Facebook with her cellphone number, offering to check-in on anyone living alone feeling scared.
Kapiti Mana area commander Inspector Paul Basham said about 20 police staff were now descending on Waihemo St and the wider area for a "major door to door operation" as they hunt for leads.
Mr Basham said the victim from Friday's attack was a "brave woman" who had suffered " serious emotional and mental injuries". She had also been physically injured too but Mr Basham didn't go into details.
He confirmed the woman didn't require hospital treatment after the "prolonged and nasty sexual assault".
"We believe the offender had approached one person in the neighbourhood with a story about looking for his daughter.
"He's then left the person and then approached the victim's address and used a similar story to gain access to the victim's house."
A woman who lives in a property behind where the attack took place heard nothing. She was surprised about that because "you can normally hear a pin drop".
She was angry at what this "creep" had done.
"I'm so peeved. I don't even feel like living around here anymore," she said.
" I feel so violated. I feel horrified that this has happened. I always thought that this was a safe place - a safe haven."
Mr Basham is asking people to take a common sense approach to home security.
"People need to be particularly cautious of letting people into their home, particularly if they're strangers and even more so if they're living on their own.""Intruder sexual assaults" we're rare in New Zealand but Mr Basham urged people to lock their doors and windows at night.
Mr Basham said police were appealing for anyone out and about in the Waihemo St area on Friday morning to come forward.
"We've got a number of leads in terms of the investigation itself. There was the initial sighting of the offender by the first person in the street but the whole point of the area canvas is to go out there and cultivate those lines of inquiry".
The police criminal profiling unit was working on the case.
A protracted interview with the victim only concluded yesterday, when police made details of the attack public.
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