A female student was robbed by two men, one of whom was carrying a handgun, near Bobb Hall early Sunday morning.
The student was walking with a friend when the men approached them at about 4:50 a.m., according to a security alert posted on NU’s Web site. One of the students gave her purse to the men. As the other student attempted to do so, the strap of her purse broke. The two men took the first student’s purse and fled, the site said.
Chicago Police have three men in custody today for questioning, said Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, Monday afternoon. Police stopped a vehicle in Rogers Park on the city’s North Side a few hours after the robbery occurred and found two BB guns inside, Cubbage said.
The students were not sure if the guns used in the robbery were real, he said.
The student whose purse was stolen notified her bank about a stolen credit card and was told it had been used, Cubbage said.
University Police Asst. Chief Dan McAleer would not comment on the report this afternoon, but provided more details on where the two students were when the robbery took place. The students were walking toward Bobb Hall, though McAleer would not say if they were entering the dormitory, on the sidewalk that runs north from Sargent Hall through the Fraternity Quads.
NU police are in contact with the two students to continue to piece details together, Cubbage said.
Cubbage said the robbery was rare because of its proximity to Bobb Hall, which is located on North Campus between the Fraternity Quads and the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center.
“This was pretty unusual in that it was up in the heart of campus,” Cubbage said. “We’re taking it very seriously.”
Three robberies occurred on the Evanston campus in 2006, the last year for which University Police posts crime statistics online.
Bobb residents said they were shocked the robbery occurred just outside their residence hall.
Weinberg freshman Meredith Bundul said she found the incident frightening because she thought the two students were taking necessary precautions.
“We always seem to walk in groups, but they were together and that didn’t seem to make such a difference,” she said. “And I would keep to well-lit areas, but this is a well-lit area.”
Another Bobb resident, Weinberg sophomore Elizabeth Green, said the incident would serve as a reminder to stay in groups at night. Green said she walked alone Saturday night, which she usually avoids doing.
“I normally would not even think of walking anywhere by myself, but last night I thought ‘Hey, what could happen?'” Green said. “So this was a slap in the face for me.”
Although the security alert was posted on the NU Web site before 7 a.m., by Sunday night many Bobb residents still did not know the incident occurred.
Amy Wang, president of Bobb-McCulloch, said she was out of town for the weekend and did not hear about the incident until she returned Sunday afternoon.
“That’s really scary for me, because for around 500 residents, Bobb-McCulloch is home,” Wang said. “With an incident so close to campus, and involving a gun, that’s really scary. That’s a safety issue that we will have to look at.”
Alex Milling, a Weinberg freshman, said she was surprised that she had not been notified about the robbery.
“I think they should have e-mailed us,” Milling said, adding that the university e-mailed students when an intruder was spotted in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house last fall.
Bobb resident Corey Winchester, a SESP sophomore, said the incident showed that “college campuses aren’t bubbles where things don’t happen.”
“You have to make the right choices and think things through,” he said. “If you’re going to go out, try to go back before 3 a.m. when the SafeRides stop running. We have a lot of resources here that are here for everyone’s safety, so people should use those resources wisely.”
Megan Crepeau contributed to this report.
