.Physics sophomore Mitchell Ahrens said he is a regular walker, but his Thursday evening stroll was far from ordinary.

While Ahrens, who was headed west on Fifth Street Southeast, crossed the footbridge over Interstate 35W, he walked past two men wearing black clothes and black jackets.

“One of them was wearing a bandana wrapped around his face,” Ahrens said. “I didn’t think anything of it.”

After they walked past, Ahrens heard one of the men say something to him.

“I kept walking,” he said. “They caught up to me and one of them said, ‘What, you didn’t hear me?’ “

The men, both about 5 feet 8 inches tall, cut in front of him and blocked his path while demanding his wallet.

Ahrens was trying to decide whether he should comply with their demands or run away, when the decision was made for him.

“I was looking for some convincing,” Ahrens said. “I looked down and he had a gun.”

So Ahrens pulled out his wallet, but asked if he could keep his U Card before giving the wallet to the men.

He was removing the identification too slowly for the men, who Ahrens said were getting anxious, so the men grabbed the whole wallet and ran.

Ahrens called Minneapolis police, who found his wallet and returned it to him before midnight.

The only loss was $10 in cash.

Mechanical engineering senior Dustin Striebel was also headed west on the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 35W when he was robbed Sunday.

Striebel was walking home from a meeting at the University around 5 p.m. when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts stopped him on the spiral portion of the bridge.

One of the men pulled out a shotgun and demanded his money.

Striebel said he didn’t get a good look at the men, but said both were about 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed about 225 pounds.

The men wanted money, but Striebel didn’t have any in his wallet, so they took his driver’s license and gave the wallet back.

The men fled and Striebel walked the last few blocks to his home and called police.

Striebel hasn’t gotten his driver’s license back, but considers himself lucky.

“All things considered, I came out on top,” he said.

In a third weekend incident, Warren Wheeler, 26, was robbed only a few blocks from where he works on University Avenue.

Minneapolis police were called to Fourth and University avenues Southeast early Monday after Wheeler had his wallet taken by two attackers.

Wheeler had been standing on the corner of the street when a car pulled up next to him.

One of the people in the car rolled down the window and asked for his wallet, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said.

When Wheeler refused, the suspects jumped out of the car, threw him on the ground and forcibly took his wallet.

They left with the wallet and its contents, which included $10 and a bank card.

Despite the three robberies this weekend, 2nd Precinct Crime Prevention Specialist Rick Maas said robberies in the precinct, which includes Marcy-Holmes, are down this year.

There were only 18 robberies in the precinct through Feb. 25. Through the same date last year, there were almost twice as many robberies in the precinct.