Armed robbers storm dorm

Three UCI students were robbed at gunpoint in their dorm room Sunday evening, campus police said. The robbers took a number of valuable items and no one was injured.

At 6:30 p.m., two men burst into one of the rooms in the Mesa Court housing area, one armed with what appeared to be a “black semi-automatic replica handgun,” victims told police.

After tying up the victims, the men took a laptop computer, money from one victim’s wallet, cell phones and clothing, stuffing it all into a large blue duffle bag, UCI Police Lt. Baltazar De La Riva said.

The men were last seen leaving the room. No vehicle was seen or heard leaving the dorm, De La Riva said.

The suspects, described as two men 18 to 20 years old, were wearing dark bandannas to cover their faces, the victims told police.

UCI students were made aware of the robbery through ZotAlert, an emergency system that uses text messages to notify students of natural disasters or the need to secure the campus, according to the school’s website. An alert was sent out at 6:30 p.m. but many students did not receive the text message for another two-to-four hours.

UCI officials were unavailable to comment on why or where the glitch in the system occurred.

The Mesa Court housing area is near the Claire Trevor School of the Arts on the north side of campus. Every one of the 29 residence halls is locked 24 hours a day, and residents’ keys open the front doors as well as their own rooms, according to the website.

Resident advisors, outfitted with walkie-talkies, were instructed to escort media off campus.

“To respect what happened, we are not allowed to have anyone in here, especially the media,” said the resident advisor of Isla building, who declined to give her name.

Students living at Mesa Court were also instructed not to speak with the media about the event, the woman added.

“We are asking the students not to comment to the media about the robbery,” the advisor said. “Of course, they can make up their own minds about that, but they have been told not to talk about it.”

Police believe this was an isolated incident. They are “not aware of any other robbery of this type taking place on the campus,” De La Riva said. “This is unique and rare.”

To report any information on the robbery, call UCI police at (949) 824-5223.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].