The disturbing scene in Berkeley yesterday -- a teenage girl found naked and pepper sprayed -- may have been the result of sex trafficking, police say.
The 16-year-old girl is still in the hospital after neighbors found her in the early morning hours on Wednesday at Piedmont and Ashby avenues, screaming for help. Neighbors brought the girl bottled water, which she poured on her body. She told police she had been raped.
The cops tell ABC News that they're not sure how the girl got there, but they think this might be a case of sex trafficking.
"The pepper spray looks to me, sounds to me like a buyer that has decided he's going to take advantage of a minor he's found," Vanessa Scott, founder of Love Never Fails, tells ABC News.
The nonprofit is dedicated to helping victims of sex trafficking in the Bay Area, which Scott says is ground zero for the underground sex trade.
"Just in the past year we've encountered 306 exploited women, men, and children in the Bay Area," she said.
Police are still investigating yesterday's crime.
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