Police are looking for two young men they say convinced a UC Berkeley student in his dorm room to make a call for them, then stole his phone while threatening to have a gun.
According to police, the robbery took place early Sunday, just before 12:20 a.m.
Police said the student was in his room at the Clark Kerr Campus of UC Berkeley, at 2601 Warring St., when he heard loud knocking on the door of his suite.
He opened the door and found two young strangers outside, the University of California Police Department wrote in a prepared statement. They asked the student to make a call for them on his phone.
“The victim was complying with the request when the suspect stepped into the residence and grabbed the victim’s phone,” police said. “The suspect told the victim that he had a gun.”
After taking the phone, the young men fled westbound. Police searched the area but could not find them.
Both robbers were described as black men who appeared 18 to 20 years old. One was 6 feet tall with a medium complexion and curly hair, and wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans. The other appeared 5 feet 7 inches tall, and had a dark complexion. He was unshaven, and wore a gray long-sleeved shirt and baggy jeans.
Police ask anyone with information about this incident to call the University of California Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau at 510-642-6760.
According to UCPD data on CrimeMapping.com, there have been just eight other robberies within UCPD’s jurisdiction in Berkeley and Albany over the past six months. But many more robberies have taken place in the area within the city police department’s jurisdiction.
According to CrimeMapping, there have been at least 50 other robberies in the southside neighborhood reported to both agencies in the past six months.
Of those, approximately 35 were reported on the southern part of campus, and south of campus from Fulton Street east.
Over the past three years, robberies have been on the rise within UCPD’s jurisdiction, with 58 in 2013, 51 in 2012 and 37 in 2011, according to UCPD’s annual report, which came out recently.
Within the city as a whole, robbery reports trended downward from 2009 to 2012, but spiked up in 2013. So far in 2014, citywide (not counting UCPD data, which are tabulated separately), there has been a significant decrease in robbery reports.
Read more about southside Berkeley and robberies in Berkeley in past Berkeleyside coverage.
Related:
4 arrested Saturday in 2 robberies near UC Berkeley (09.09.14)
2 arrested in Berkeley after teens report attack, robbery (08.27.14)
1 sent to hospital with head trauma after Berkeley fight (08.18.14)
Police report 2 arrests, 1 fire, property damage during Michael Brown protest in Berkeley (08.15.14)
3 teens charged after robbery via gun in Berkeley (08.12.14)
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