News Editor
Several armed robberies were reported in the UW campus area this past Valentine’s Day weekend.
At approximately 10:15 p.m. Saturday night, a 24-year-old pizza delivery man was accosted by two men while he was approaching his car following the completion of a pizza delivery on the 400 block of West Main Street, police said. While one of the suspects stood as a lookout, the other pointed a handgun at the victim, ordering him to kneel and surrender the money in his pockets, according to the report. After the victim complied, both suspects fled toward the Capitol in a white car.
The pizza delivery man escaped the confrontation unharmed.
Two unknown suspects allegedly robbed a pizza-delivery driver last Friday night at 430 W. Main St.
According to police, the suspects flashed a black handgun to the delivery driver to obtain an undisclosed amount of money at 8:18 p.m. The suspects were last seen running toward the Capitol, but police were unable to track them down.
One of the suspects was described by the victim as a black male wearing a dark hooded winter coat and jeans, stood 5-foot-6 and weighed approximately 220 pounds, the victim told police. The other suspect was described as a black male weighing approximately 200 pounds and wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with jeans and standing 6-foot-2.
Police said these descriptions match the descriptions of two suspects in a robbery 15 minutes earlier in the town of Madison.
“The description of suspects and method sounds very similar,” said Sgt. Pete Schmidt of the Madison Police Department. “There have been a number of robberies in the downtown area in the last two weeks. It sounds like they have been committed by the same suspects.”
Shortly before midnight Saturday, two college-aged males walking in a driveway on the 600 block of North Henry Street were approached by a man brandishing a handgun and demanding money, police said.
After giving the suspect money, the two victims were told to leave the area.
A 33-year-old Madison man armed with a shotgun held a one-year-old girl hostage Saturday night, according to police. The confrontation began shortly after 9:30 p.m., when officers received a call of a man threatening a woman with a shotgun in the context of an apparent domestic dispute.
The suspect retreated to his apartment with the young girl. After police closed off the vicinity, negotiators were able to contact the man via telephone. After agreeing to come out of the apartment, he was arrested and booked into the Dane County jail.
The child was unharmed.
