While the Minneapolis Police Department responded to multiple thefts and robberies in neighborhoods around the University in the past week, the University of Minnesota Police Department noticed more crime indoors.
MPD officers responded to a fight involving three men and golf clubs outside of Blarney Pub and Grill on Thursday around 10:30 p.m. MPD arrived to the scene and arrested the three men after they bailed from a vehicle. Officers identified that the vehicle was stolen by the suspects.
A University student was robbed of the money in her purse on Friday on Essex Street Southeast, near the University Commons student housing center. The incident occurred while the victim was on the sidewalk around 2:35 a.m., and she reported the incident to MPD nearly an hour later.
Before she was robbed, the suspect grabbed the student, asking to look in her purse. The suspect fled the scene on foot.
MPD responded to another robbery report on Friday near the University Avenue Super America in Prospect Park. The victim was walking on the sidewalk around 8:13 a.m. when her purse was snatched from her shoulder. The suspect then fled the scene in a vehicle.
An assault occurred in the 1000 block of 14th Avenue Southeast in Como on Sunday around midnight. The victim went to the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
On campus, most thefts occurred inside. From Feb. 14 to 21, there were seven thefts from buildings on campus, five of which happened in Coffman Union, according to UMPD Lieutenant Chuck Miner.
Items most commonly stolen in University buildings are laptops and wallets, he said.
“We get vagrants and homeless people in the building,” Miner said, “We do step up patrol in areas like Coffman this time of year.”