Prince George’s County Police are investigating two strong-arm robberies that occurred in College Park over the weekend. The first took place on Berwyn House Road and the other on College Avenue, both areas heavily populated by students.

two men knock victim to ground

The victim was walking east on the 4800 block of Berwyn House Road at 3:30 a.m. Friday when two men who had been loitering near the McDonald’s on Route 1 followed him and knocked him to the ground, according to a crime alert e-mailed by Prince George’s County Police.

One of the men took the victim’s property, and both muggers fled toward Lakeland Road. The victim was not seriously injured, police said.

District 1 Commander Maj. Kevin Davis wrote in a text message that the county stepped up its police presence in College Park on Halloween night, and the incident is under investigation.

In the crime alert, the robbers were described as a 6-foot black man between the ages of 25 and 30 wearing a black jacket and a 6’2 white man between the ages of 25 and 30 wearing a light-colored jacket.

The incident was the second reported robbery on Berwyn House Road in October. On Oct. 7, a student was knocked from her bicycle by two men while riding between Berwyn House Road and Navahoe Road, although it was originally reported as on Berwyn Road. The men fled the scene in a vehicle with her property.

ALUMNUS ATTACKED ON HALLOWEEN

Ben Johnson, an alumnus and assistant researcher, used old boxes to construct an Optimus Prime costume for Halloween. He had no idea it would help cushion the impact when a robber tackled him to the ground later that night.

Two men attacked Johnson, a former opinion editor for The Diamondback, at the corner of Rhode Island Avenue and College Avenue early on the morning of Nov. 1.

Johnson first noticed the “suspicious” figures at 4:20 a.m. walking south on Rhode Island Avenue as he was walking home from a party. As he passed them, they stopped and one of the men started running at him.

Before the men reached him, Johnson grabbed his wallet and flung it into a nearby bush just before he was hit into the grass in front of University Cleaners.

The tackler pinned Johnson to the ground by resting his boot on his head while the other man searched Johnson’s pockets for his property, coming up with his cell phone. They were not able to find the discarded wallet and eventually left the scene on foot, heading up Rhode Island Avenue and turning left onto Norwich Avenue.

Johnson said he reached a blue light phone only seconds after the robbery and contacted county police, who had cars on the scene in about two minutes. They set up a perimeter but were unable to find the muggers.

Johnson said he thinks the surrounding areas and widespread student drinking makes College Park vulnerable to criminal activity, and doesn’t believe it will change anytime soon.

“The sad thing is I’ve lived here for five years, so I had resigned myself to the fact that [being robbed] was sort of likely,” Johnson said. “I’m not shocked that this happened.”

No crime alert was issued for the incident. University Police declined to comment, and county police were unable to comment.

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