Authorities allege driver picked up missing New Jersey teen and sexually assaulted her

A man was arrested Tuesday and accused of sexually assaulting a teenager he picked up after seeing her on a busy Ocean County highway, authorities said.

On Sept. 29, the 14-year-old girl contacted the Manchester Township Police Department and told them she had been sexually abused by a man she did not know, according to a statement from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

The girl was traveling on Route 70 in Manchester Township and became lost when a man driving a white Jeep Gran Cherokee stopped and started talking to her, the office said.

Authorities believed the man was Keith Hahn, 46, of Toms River.

The teen asked Hahn to take her to the animal shelter in Toms River, but he instead drove her to an unknown area and sexually assaulted her, investigators suspected. He then drove her to a Walmart in Toms River, and she got out of the car and ran home, officials said.

Hahn is a registered sex offender, authorities said. Police searched his home and car on Tuesday, officials said.

Hahn was taken into custody at his home and booked into the Ocean County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual battery, aggravated criminal sexual contact, kidnapping, luring and endangering the welfare of a child, the office said. He was held there pending the results of his hearing.