Penn student a victim of local taxi robberies

Division of Public Safety officials have now confirmed that one Penn student was a victim in the recent string of taxi cab robberies, and police officials continue to search for two men alleged to have robbed four individuals at gunpoint since Sept. 2.

According to DPS officials, a Penn student was involved in a robbery reported at 2:05 a.m. at 12th and Walnut streets on Sept. 29.

During that robbery, that student and three other collegians had just left a bar and were hailing a cab to another location in Center City, Philadelphia Police Lt. Richard Brown said.

Brown said a man sitting in the passenger seat showed a black or silver handgun after the cab began moving, and the passengers were brought to an ATM at some other location in Philadelphia.

One of the students was forced to withdraw money from the ATM, and all of the them were brought back to Center City, where they were given $20 to hail another taxi, Brown said.

A second robbery was reported that night at 10th and Walnut streets at about 2:30 a.m. Similar robberies have also occurred between 2:00 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. at 40th and Walnut streets on Sept. 22 and at Spring Garden and Front streets on Sept. 2.

The descriptions of the two men in the robberies have all been similar.

Brown described the driver as a black male who was clean shaven. DPS officials also said that he is mid-to-late twenties, 6 feet tall and 180 to 190 pounds.

Brown described the man in the passenger seat as a black male, age 19 to 25, with a goatee and wearing a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap. He is also about 160 to 170 pounds, according to DPS officials.

The vehicle the two suspects are using appear to be a cab that was taken out of service, Brown said.

In the Center City robberies, Brown said it was a black Ford Crown Victoria with white lettering and markings on the rear doors, though DPS officials said the car in the 40th and Walnut streets case was described as a white Ford Crown Victoria.

In some of the cases, the victims have been taken to multiple ATMs, Brown said.

It is unclear whether additional related robberies occurred again this past weekend.T

Both Penn's Division of Public Safety and Drexel University's Division of Public Safety have published crime alerts, and anyone with information should either call Penn Police at 215-573-3333 or Philadelphia Police Central Detectives at 215-686-3093.

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