Three unknown males attempted to rob a 33-year-old female Penn student on the 400 block of South 41st Street around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday.
The student was walking north on Baltimore Avenue when she passed the three men. As she walked past them, one of the males grabbed her purse and whirled her around.
A second male proceeded to punch her on the left side of her face, as the first continued to hold onto the bag.
The student was then able to free herself and her purse of the men and flee north on 41st Street, screaming for the police all the way.
"She just yanked herself loose," University Police Detective Frank DeMaio said.
The student sustained a bruise under her left eye, but did not require hospitalization.
As the student ran north on 41st, the three men fled south, DeMaio said.
"They might have been just as frightened as her," DeMaio said. "They weren't expecting her to fight back, and she did."
The only available description of the three males is that they all seemed to be in their 20s, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and were wearing dark clothes. One was wearing a light-colored hat.
DeMaio described the student, a female walking alone in the night, as being an unlucky "target of opportunity."
Noting that "anytime you get away and don't lose anything, you're lucky," DeMaio said that, in general, it is safer to "just give it up," and not resist an attempted robbery.
The situation is still under investigation, DeMaio said, adding that there have been no arrests and there are currently no leads.
"We're still working with the Philadelphia Police on this because of the location," he said. "We have an ongoing dialogue with the Philadelphia Police."
