Weekend marked by thefts

This past weekend saw a rash of robberies across Oakland, at least one of which involved the… This past weekend saw a rash of robberies across Oakland, at least one of which involved the victims being held at gunpoint.

From Friday evening to late Monday night, four robberies occurred in the areas of North, Central and South Oakland. City police and the Pitt police maintain ongoing investigations into all of the incidents, but no arrests have yet been made.

The first incident occurred just before 6 p.m. Friday at the corner of Craig and Bayard streets and, according to city police, involved at least two assailants who either produced a weapon or indicated to the victim they had a weapon.

Early Sunday around 1 a.m., three female Pitt students were robbed at gunpoint by three black men in the parking lot of their apartment building on Atwood Street. One of the perpetrators forced one of the victims to the ground and held a gun to her head while the other two assailants collected the victims’ wallets, keys and cell phones.

Just after midnight Monday morning, a Pitt student was robbed on the steps behind Eberly Hall, barely out of range of security cameras installed by Pitt last year to make that area safer at night.

At 11:15 p.m. Monday, another robbery involving three black men occurred in the 300 block of Oakland Avenue. The Pitt police said that the similar description of the assailants leads them to believe that this incident is most likely connected to the Atwood Street robbery.

Last Wednesday, a similar robbery was also reported in the 300 block of Melwood Avenue.

In response to this slew of crimes, Pitt police have posted alerts around campus warning students to be extra careful in Oakland at night. The most recent alert was released Tuesday and described another attempted robbery around midnight on University Drive.

City police confirmed that they are working with Pitt police to saturate the neighborhood with patrols involving marked and unmarked cars, foot patrols and plainclothes officers.

Ron Bennett, Pitt’s public relations officer, said the increased patrols would continue indefinitely until the department is satisfied that the crime spree has been checked.

City police Zone 4 spokesman Matthew White said that the recent Oakland incidents reflect an upswing in robberies across the city.

White was reluctant to offer a possible explanation for the trend, but did say that the unusually warm weather has caused more people to be out and about at all times of the day.

“These appear to be opportunistic crimes,” White said. “This doesn’t appear to be anything thought-out or planned.”

White added that it can be extremely difficult to investigate this type of robbery because of the spotty nature of the descriptions victims provide to police.

“One victim could look at a handgun and see a shotgun, or say that a bad guy is 6-1 when he’s really only 5-10. Understandably, [the victim] is very shaken-up,” he said.