The Shorthorn - UTA Police issue crime bulletin, increase patrol after second robbery attempt

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UTA Police issue crime bulletin, increase patrol after second robbery attempt

Written by Johnathan Silver, The Shorthorn senior staff

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 09:38 PM

After a second robbery attempt reportedly took place at Lot 49 on Tuesday night, UTA Police are increasing patrol and distributing crime bulletins to the community.

According to police, at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday a passenger in a silver four-door vehicle reportedly yelled at a student to drop her bag.

Another female student reported a similar experience the night before when she told police a passenger in a four-door sedan tried to rob her, but fled after she ran away.

Rick Gomez, UTA Police assistant chief, said both incidences had the same methods of operation.

In both cases, the men approached the student by car, and the passenger leaned out of the car and told the women to drop their purses.

In the first case, the student reported that the man carried a stun gun, whereas the second student reported that the passenger carried a gun. The student parking lot is located on the south part of campus.

Information

Anyone with information regarding the robbery attempts is encouraged to call UTA Police at 817-272-3381

Gomez said the two incidences may be related.

“We have different descriptions of the vehicles used and the persons who demanded that the females drop their purses,” he said. “We still think it may involve the same suspects.”

Police have sent out e-mail notifications throughout campus as of Wednesday afternoon.

“We plan on increasing our contacts with the public to identify persons on campus who seem suspicious or appear out of place,” Gomez said.

University spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said the police need the campus community’s help.

“Surely someone saw this,” she said. “We need potential witnesses to call in.”

One person whom police are looking for is a Hispanic woman in her 20s, who allowed the first student into her car after she fled the potential robbers, Sullivan said.

The student didn’t catch the woman’s name.

Sullivan believes the driver attends UTA because the student reported seeing a backpack in the car. Police need to find that woman so that she could help with the investigation, Sullivan said.

Aerospace engineering junior Fatima Hamza said she’s not worried about being robbed, but thinks it shouldn’t be too expensive to install cameras in parking lots.

“If there are cameras, you’ll be less inclined to do something stupid,” she said.

Sullivan said students responded well to the university’s warnings during the fall’s cell phone theft series by not traveling alone. She said students should heed the advice once again.

“It is imperative that students know that it is not okay to walk across campus alone at night,” she said.

Lot 49 is the student parking lot located on the south part of campus.

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