University sophomores John Hofer and David Holt were walking home from Walter Library late Wednesday night, having a conversation and sharing an iPod.

They were only a few blocks from their apartment when their conversation was interrupted.

“I saw a shadow when we turned onto 16th (Avenue Southeast),” Hofer, a biology major, said. “He was six or seven feet back. I figured he was getting off the bus to go home.”

But that man ran up behind the roommates, wielding a four-inch knife and demanding their wallets.

Hofer lost $8, three credit cards and bank account information. Holt, a biomedical engineering major, said he had $60, a debit card, a credit card, his driver’s license and a few other things taken.

Both said they weren’t 100 percent confident in identifying a suspect when Minneapolis police showed them photo lineups earlier this week.

In another Southeast Como robbery Friday night, Tyler Olson, 21, told police he too was robbed at knifepoint.

“Me and one of my roommates were walking home from a friend’s house,” he said. “About a block from our place, a guy came up and held a knife up to my buddy.”

Olson gave the man, later arrested by police and identified as David Amarvi, his wallet while his friend stalled for time.

Amarvi took the $11 in cash from the wallet and tossed it back to Olson.

Olson’s friend didn’t have any cash on him, so Amarvi left.

Amarvi has been charged with aggravated robbery and is in Hennepin County Jail on $75,000 bail. He has a court date scheduled for today.

Books stolen from University for a third time

University police are looking for books stolen from the Social Sciences Building after a bookcase in the building was broken into this weekend – again.

After books belonging to the sociology department were stolen from the glass bookcase sometime between Feb. 8 and Feb. 10, more books were stolen this weekend from the same bookcase.

Alexis Cuttance, an undergraduate secretary in the political science department, said about eight books were stolen.

The political science department doesn’t know which books were taken most recently because the books weren’t inventoried.

Five screws on the top of the bookcase were taken out, allowing the front doors of the case to open, according to the police report.

The same bookcase had also been broken into another time before these two instances, Cuttance said, prompting the University to install locks on the doors before the second robbery.

Approximately $600 in books has been taken from the bookcase.

University police Lt. Troy Buhta said police don’t have any suspects in the cases at this time.

Robbery near West Bank ends in arrest

Minneapolis police responded to a 911 call Feb. 13 near the West Bank after a 31-year-old Minneapolis man was assaulted and robbed.

Awolker Salih told police that his wallet and cell phone were taken and the attackers left in a mid-’90s red or maroon Toyota Camry.

According to the criminal complaint, Salih said he was talking on the phone when one of the men asked to use it.

Salih refused and the men attacked him and took his phone and his wallet.

Minneapolis police later found the vehicle and Salih was able to identify two of the five men.

Of the two, Zakaria Ali, 18, was charged with the robbery.

He remains in Hennepin County Jail on $20,000 bail.