UCI robbery prompts increased police patrols

The UCI Police Department has asked officers to boost their patrols around campus dorms after an armed robbery last weekend, Lt. Baltazar De La Riva said.

Last Sunday, two men stormed into a dorm room in the Mesa Court housing complex, tied up three students at gunpoint and made off with a laptop, cash and other items. No arrests have been made, and UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said the investigation was ongoing.

In the meantime, police have stepped up their presence in housing areas around campus.

“We have asked every officer working patrol to concentrate their patrol efforts around the housing areas of the university,” said De La Riva, who added that the department had not put any additional officers on duty.

He said the identity of the robbers, described as men 18 to 20 years old with bandannas over their faces, remained a mystery. Police knocked on a number of doors in Mesa Court and found no other residents who reported an encounter with the men, De La Riva said.

A large part of the problem, he added, was the fact that students often left outside doors unlocked or propped open.

— Michael Miller