A Walmart employee allegedly called a 14-year-old ‘cute’ and got her number. Hours later she was missing from her East Bay home

DUBLIN — A local resident has been arrested and charged with raping and sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl that police say he met through his job at a Walmart, court records show.

Parminder Pawar, 32, of Dublin, was charged in April with forcible rape, committing a lewd act on a minor, forcible sodomy and other charges related to alleged sexual abuse of the teen. Pawar remains in custody and is next due in court on May 7 to enter a plea, records show.

Pawar met the teen on July 30, 2023, when she was shopping at the Walmart where he worked as a tire technician, according to Livermore police. The girl’s mother reported that he called her “cute” and that they exchanged numbers that afternoon, authorities said.

By 1:30 a.m. the following morning, the girl had vanished, and her family reported her missing, police said. She returned home later that morning, but by that afternoon, she checked herself into a local hospital for a rape test exam and reported that Pawar had sexually abused her after picking her up at her house, authorities said.

The test confirmed the girl had been sexually assaulted, authorities said. Pawar was identified as the employee through his phone number, and a review of license plate readers caught him traveling near the girl’s home at about at 11:45 p.m. on July 30, 2023, and returning roughly two-and-a-half hours later, according to court records.

Police arrested Pawar at his Dublin home last March. His bail has been set at $480,000.