Two robberies and one attempted robbery that occurred during September are all still under investigation, said university police.
Campus awareness and security has been heightened after the two attempted and one actual robberies that occurred on and off campus during the first month of classes, according to Douglas Little, interim chief of police.
The first attempted robbery happened at Wagner College in Roosevelt Quad on Sept. 6, when three men threatened a male student and then fled in the direction of Kelly Cafe.
Less than two weeks later, three men wearing dark clothing and skeleton masks approached a male resident between the Computing Center and Circle Road at 11:50 p.m. and took his backpack.
Forty minutes later, two female residents were walking adjacent to Route 25-A when a male in a black hooded sweatshirt approached them, attempting to steal one students purse then running towards Cosmo’s Cafe and entering a black sedan, which sped off in an unknown direction.
Little hopes that in situations involving crime in the campus community, anyone with knowledge of the crime or who witnessed it, notify police. “There are not a lot of solvability factors here,” he said.
He also urged students to utilize services that are provided by the university such as the ride program (dial 632-RIDE) and the Residential Safety Prodgram (dial 632-WALK). Little also encouraged anyone who has information about a crime to call Suffolk County Crime Stoppers, the anonymous hotline that offers rewards for tips that lead to arrests at 1-800- 220-TIPS or by calling 2-TIPS on campus.
“By communicating to the community in a timely fashion, we put the many good people on notice?that there are thugs out there,” said Little. He stressed the details of the cases, making sure that the campus community is aware of the fact that one crime involved three men in skeleton masks.
Campus-wide awareness may have attributed to the decrease in robberies from six in 2006 to three in 2007, according to the Stony Brook University Annual Security Report, available online for free at the university web site.
