With Baltimore police searching for a serial rapist in Mount Vernon -- as many as six attacks in the past few months -- and complaints that city officials didn't warn people fast enough, word of more attacks can spread quickly.

I got this e-mail on Sunday (it demonstrates how one small comment can travel fast, and worry many):

I spoke with a police officer today around noon (he had come to take a report on my car break-in and others in the 600 block of N. Calvert) who said that he and his partner had just come from the scene of another rape that occurred last night.  He didn't say a block specifically but it was a few blocks north of where we were - sounds like the same area where the others have clustered.

My colleague Richard Irwin talked with Baltimore police spokesman Troy Harris last night and got this account: A woman apparently had passed out in a bedroom of a Mount Vernon apartment during a party. A man went upstairs and saw another man in the woman's room, putting on his pants. The woman was still passed out. Police were called but Harris said the woman didn't remember anything and the man wasn't talking. The investigating is continuing, but it's not yet known whether a crime occurred.

In either case, this does not appear to be connected to the other attacks.