SANTA CRUZ -- Police are searching for a man who raped a coffee shop employee at knife-point, robbed the store where she works and tried to lock her in a storage freezer Wednesday morning.

"This type of attack is the community's worst nightmare," police spokesman Zach Friend said.

The man slipped into the Kind Grind at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor about 15 minutes after the employee, a 24-year-old Santa Cruz woman, arrived around 5:45 a.m., according to police. The shop opens at 6:30 a.m., but the door was unlocked.

She was working in the back right corner of the coffee shop near the kitchen when the attacker, described as a Latino man younger than 25, approached her, Friend said.

"He said something to her," Friend said, repeating the profane statement that essentially told her to not say anything.

The attacker pressed a knife against the woman, sexually assaulted her, then took the cash from the register, Friend said.

After trying to lock the woman in a freezer, the attacker ran away with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police think he headed toward the harbor and maybe rode away on a bicycle.

Friend said the woman was able to get out of the freezer because the attacker did not properly lock the door. She called 911 at 6:17 a.m. Two officers arrived in about two minutes, according to police.

The woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance to be examined and for counseling, according to police. Friend said she was not stabbed or beaten during the attack.

Friend called the incident "exceptionally rare," and said there haven't been similar attacks elsewhere in the county.

Police said the barista was working her regular shift preparing to open the store, which is one of the only businesses in that part of the harbor -- the east side near the beach -- open at that hour. Police have yet to determine if the attack was random or if the man had been planning to assault the woman.

"There's been no reports of questionable behavior" in the area, Friend said.

After the attack, a be-on-the-lookout bulletin for the attacker was broadcast to all law enforcement agencies in the county, and State Parks rangers and a police dog were called to help search for the rapist. The dog lost the man's scent near the water, which is why police think he may have ridden away on a bike, according to Friend.

He had not been found late Wednesday. The man has close-shaved hair and was wearing a blue T-shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt with light-colored writing. Police are working on a sketch.

A dozen detectives were assigned to the case, including three crime scene investigators who scoured the shop for DNA evidence and fingerprints that will be sent to the state Department of Justice for analysis, according to Friend. They also expect the rape examination performed at the hospital will yield evidence.

Detectives searched the east side of the harbor to the Murray Street bridge and into the residential neighborhood between the harbor and Seventh Avenue. They found a fillet knife in a trash can in the harbor parking lot, though it's unclear if it's the knife used in the attack, Friend said. They also found a blue shirt that might belong to the attacker.

Investigators also are reviewing surveillance footage from nearby businesses and culling through records of registered sex offenders who live in the area. Those efforts had not yielded any suspects late Wednesday.

Santa Cruz and Harbor police will increase patrols around the harbor, the east boundary of the city. Also, representatives from the police department and the city's Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women distributed fliers Wednesday afternoon at the harbor and nearby neighborhoods to inform people of the attack.

The Kind Grind was closed Wednesday while detectives worked. It's unclear if the coffee shop will reopen today. The store owner could not be reached to comment.

People going out to harbor restaurants Wednesday evening were talking about the attack and were concerned.

"I was a bit shocked. Santa Cruz ... my impression is it's still a small community. That's just not right." said Vince Woodall, who grew up in the area.

Some women at the harbor Wednesday said they weren't going to change their routines, but did say they would take precautions. One Crow's Nest employee said she is going to get a walk to her car after work.

"It's awful. The main thing is I thought about how scary for her," said Darcy Nicholson, who was at the Crow's Nest with a group of college-age friends.

Police asked anyone who was in the area at the time of the attack call the Investigations Unit at 420-5820 or the anonymous tip line at 420-5995.