U Of M Safety Alert: 2 Late Night Robberies Reported In Dinkytown

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Officials at the University of Minnesota say that two robberies happened late Monday night near the Twin Cities campus.

According to an alert send out by school officials, the robberies occurred in Dinkytown near the intersection of 5th Street and 12th Avenue Southeast. The first happened around 11:14 p.m. when a suspect robbed and pistol-whipped the victim. The victim reported that the robber fled the area in a silver Lincoln.

The second robbery happened about 10 minutes later. Two males, one wearing a black ski mask and another with a red bandana over his head, robbed two people at gunpoint, taking their wallets and keys. The victims did not see how they fled the area.

WCCO spoke with a young woman who was actually parked on the other side of the street and witnessed one the robberies. She said it was dark and her car was off, so the robbers may have not noticed her. She was able to call 911 and file a report.

“I think there were three men but it could have been two, and then there were the two girls,” Christina Long said. “I didn’t see everything that happened but I saw one of them had a gun, and I watched the girls drop all their stuff. One of the girls dropped their keys on the sidewalk and they were still there when the police came.”

The Minneapolis Police Department is investigating the robberies.

After last month’s shooting incident in Dinkytown, the U of M and the City of Minneapolis have already made changes to increase safety. That includes increasing police presence and security cameras. Long-term plans are underway as well.

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