Three college students were walking near downtown Athens early Friday morning when they were accosted by two gunman who demanded their money and threatened to shoot them.
Luckily, a car happened along and apparently spooked the criminals, who ran away without anyone being hurt or robbed.
The aborted armed robbery was the first of what Athens-Clarke County police fear will be others to come now that the University of Georgia is back in session and college football season has begun.
“It’s that time of year,” said Lt. Mike Tyndell, assistant commander of the Centralized Criminal Investigations Division, “There’s a ballgame coming up and all the students are back, so there’s a lot more people coming through the downtown area.”
Tyndell said robberies targeting students this time of year “is a trend we typically deal with.”
During this past spring semester, more than a dozen UGA students became victims of armed robberies in and around the downtown area. Most of the robberies occurred as students walked alone late at night, though some student victims walked in pairs. One student was robbed in broad daylight as she made a withdrawal from a downtown ATM.
A female student walking alone near her home in the area of East Broad and Arch streets was pistol-whipped by one of two gunmen, who ran off upon seeing a police officer approaching on motorcycle.
The fall semester can provide criminals with an even richer environment of potential victims, with large crowds filling downtown for post-football game revelry.
Tyndell said Friday morning’s armed robbery attempt was “a tad odd” in that the students were in a group in an area that was fairly well lit ‑ East Dougherty Street near Foundry Street.
“There’s not a whole lot you can do to prevent something like that,” the officer said.
The hold-up occurred shortly after midnight, and the male students — two from UGA and one from the University of North Georgia — did not report the incident until they got to their apartment on Willow Street.
It’s understandable that some people might wait until they are in the safe haven of their home before calling the police to report a traumatic event like being robbed at gunpoint, Tyndell said. But it’s important that people use their cellphones to immediately call 911.
“We may have officers close by in the area who might see someone fitting a suspect’s description,” he said.
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