Two people walking Friday night in what’s usually a quiet residential neighborhood in Berkeley were robbed at gunpoint by men in ski masks, then shoved into the bushes, according to community and police reports.
According to a post on private social network Nextdoor, a couple was “strolling down Forest Avenue” when people wearing masks and wielding guns got out of a car and “demanded phones, wallets, purse and pushed their victims in the shrubbery.”
Berkeley Police Lt. Dave Lindenau said the robbery took place in the 2900 block of Forest Avenue, near Claremont Boulevard. He said two men of medium build wearing dark clothes and ski masks robbed a man and woman at gunpoint. The men may have been in their 20s or 30s, and may have been Hispanic. The call came in just after 11 p.m.
The robbers ran to a car that sped off, Lindenau said. No description of the vehicle was immediately available.
Lindenau said he was aware of the robbery alert shared earlier on Saturday by the University of California Police Department, but that it’s too soon to say whether the incidents could have been related.
Investigations are ongoing.
