In a little less than three weeks, The University of Memphis had its seventh and eighth robberies of the year. Both incidents were armed robberies and occurred in the same parking lot across from West Hall.
Monday morning at a little after 1:30 two female U of M students, who wished to remain unidentified, were walking back to their cars, according to the police report, when a silver sedan pulled into the lot. According to one victim, they were doing late night projects for their art classes.
Only one victim could be reached for comment and she said they almost escaped the robbery because the suspects were on the verge of leaving the lot when they noticed the two females.
The suspects backed their car up behind the victims.
"They blocked us in and of course there was a fence in front of us," she said.
After the car pulled up behind the students, two black males got out with one carrying a shotgun.
The first suspect was described as 6 ft. 5 and 300 pounds. He wore a green trucker hat, gray sweatshirt and dark pants.
The second suspect wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants. The police report stated he was between 5 ft. 9 to 5 ft. 10 and weighed 280 pounds.
The third suspect, the driver, remained in the car until his two accomplices were finished with the robbery.
The victim said she was only carrying a purse, which contained two credit cards and class work. Before the first two suspects got out of the car, she said she wasn't sure if there was any malicious intent.
"We thought they were hitting on us," the victim said.
That notion was erased when the suspect sitting on the passenger side pulled out a shotgun and asked for some money. However, she said the entire robbery was nonchalant and the suspects never got verbally aggressive.
"The guy who was robbing my friend just said 'give me the money' in a sing-song type of way," she said. "She gave him her cell phone."
The victim also added that when the suspects first stepped out they tenderly shouted out "come here baby."
"It seemed that they had done this several times already," she said. "This was one of many."
The suspect who sat in the back eventually reached for her bag and they struggled for a while until the victim started screaming and finally gave in.
Immediately after the robbery, the victim called campus police at 1:48 a.m. and subsequently called her mom to cancel the two credit cards in her purse.
According to the second victim's credit card companies, the suspects tried to use the credit cards at a nearby gas station to buy gas, but were declined.
Altogether, the victims gave up a wallet, cell phone and purse and the total estimated loss for the items was $150.
No one was hurt, according to police.
Bruce Harber, director of public safety, said the event is under investigation, but thinks it may have involved the same suspects from the most recent armed robbery.
"We think they may be related to the one that happened several days ago," he said.
Besides a campus safety alert, Harber said campus police will re-enforce security on Patterson Road near West Hall until Dec. 15. when the dorms should be cleared of residents.
Monday's incident could also add more safety concerns to Tennessee's safest college campus.
Already the number of on-campus robberies is eight. This figure doubles the record of on-campus robberies from last year.
There were 11 total robberies in both on-campus and surrounding areas in 2005.
