Hastings police are concerned a man might try to attack someone else after being scared from a young woman's home he had forced his way into on New Years Eve.
The woman, thought to be in her late 20s, was alone in the house, in the suburb of Flaxmere, when the attack happened at 10.30pm.
After knocking on the door, the man forced his way into the house and physically assaulted the woman.
"That assault and his demeanour indicated that it had sexual connotations, and he was then disturbed by the victim's dog who came to her assistance," police said.
Detective Stuart Biggs of Hastings police told NZPA the woman would be able to give a full description of the man to a police sketch artist.
"The victim is quite confident she will be able to be able to give quite an accurate facial image." Mr Biggs said the woman was very lucky her "angry" bulldog-type dog was able to frighten the man away.
"We don't think it actually sunk his teeth into him, but it was enough to put him off and frighten him." He said police were concerned it was just a matter of time before the man targeted another house that did not have a guard dog.
"If he's done it once, who's to say he's not going to give it another try. "So we'd like to catch the nasty man." The man was described as having a ginger complexion, aged around 35 or 40 with shoulder-length whispy hair. He was clean shaven with pitted skin on his face, about 1.6m tall with light coloured eyes.
