SAN DIEGO - The arrest of one rape suspect in North Park Thursday did not stop another man from assaulting a North Park woman this weekend, police said today.

At about 9 p.m. yesterday, a masked man entered the woman's apartment at the 3900 block of Utah Street. The man, wearing a bandana over his face, apparently believed she was home alone, said Sgt. Rick Nemetz with the San Diego Police Department.

The stalker walked through her unlocked screen door, straight into the kitchen and picked up two knives, Nemetz said.

The woman called to her boyfriend, who happened to be in another room. The masked man turned and ran, knives in hand, out of the apartment, Nemetz said.

Another man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of committing a string of rapes in the area, and police are investigating if that person sexually assaulted a woman Aug. 31 on nearby Iowa Street.

Deandre Smith, 29, was taken into custody Thursday after police caught him driving a car belonging to one of the rape victims. Police said he may have committed at least three sexual assaults, and may have committed the Aug. 31 attack on Iowa Street.

One case, on Florida Street, involved a 55-year-old woman. Smith is charged in another case involving a 69-year-old woman on Robinson Avenue, and the third was a victim who knew Smith.

Smith climbed through an unlocked window, allegedly, in one case, and in another, he walked through an unlocked door, San Diego police Lt. Carolyn Kendrick told the Union-Tribune.

Police were looking at Smith for the fourth Aug. 31 case on Iowa Street because it was similar to the others, The Union-Tribune reported.

"I believe it was just an opportunity," Kendrick said. "They were lone females in cottages or single-story homes on ground floors, with … nobody else home."