Two 15-year-old boys were arrested Friday after police say they knocked down and robbed a UC Berkeley student on campus.
The student suffered minor injuries when the boys knocked him to the ground and took his cellphone out of his hand, said the University of California Police Department in a statement Monday.
Police said the strong-arm robbery happened Friday at 7:50 p.m. in front of music building Morrison Hall. The building is not far from Bancroft Way and College Avenue.
Responding UCPD officers stopped the boys near Stern Hall, according to police, which is north of Gayley Road and south of Hearst Avenue.
UCPD said they were detained “and admitted robbing the victim.” They were arrested at the scene. No further information was available about the case due to privacy laws that protect minors.
There have been at least 39 robberies near or on campus in the past six months, according to CrimeMapping.com, which collects local police data. Most of the incidents took place in the blocks south and west of UC Berkeley, which have high concentrations of people due to the busy shopping districts downtown and on Telegraph Avenue.
Nine of those robberies happened within UCPD’s jurisdiction, which includes campus itself, off-campus residence halls, Grizzly Peak Boulevard and People’s Park. The rest were Berkeley Police Department cases. Unlike Oakland, neither UCPD or Berkeley PD indicate on CrimeMapping whether a robbery was armed.
Last week, UCPD handled two high-profile robberies on Grizzly Peak. Early Tuesday morning, a woman was shot during a robbery attempt at Signpost 16. In the other, on Friday, three people robbed a man at the same parking area. No arrests have been reported in either case.
Police ask anyone with information about Monday’s robbery to call UCPD at 510-642-6760.
UCPD safety tips:
- Travel with a friend or in a group
- Be alert and aware of surroundings
- Keep your electronic devices out of public view as they are a popular robbery target
- Dial 510-642-3333 on a cell, or use a Blue Light emergency phone on campus, to reach authorities
- Call law enforcement promptly: “UCPD strongly encourages the reporting of criminal or suspicious activity in a timely manner to assist us in intervening in potential criminal actively and apprehending suspects.”
