A female freshman was robbed in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon near the center of campus, police officials said yesterday.
Police have not made any arrests in the case but said they are aggressively pursuing several leads.
The student was walking on Woodland Walk behind Steinberg- Dietrich Hall at approximately 2:15 p.m. when she was accosted.
Her attacker -- an adult male -- grabbed her by the wrist and demanded that she give him the gold necklace she was wearing, according to police reports.
After the student removed the necklace and handed it to her attacker, he grabbed her plastic lunch bag away from her, put the necklace into the bag and ran from the scene.
The bag contained the student's PennCard, assorted identifications, her lunch and approximately $1.50 in cash, police said.
The necklace is valued at $300.
The student called Penn Police immediately after the incident.
She was transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for wrist X-rays, which were negative.
Police said that she did not sustain any major injuries.
The victim described her attacker as a black male between 25 and 30 years old with a dark complexion. At the time of the robbery, he wore a black hooded sweatshirt.
There were no witnesses to the incident.
However, Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey said there were a number of officers on duty in the area at that time.
"We had a lot of officers in the area ... so it was very brazen of that person to do that," he said.
Dorsey said that during his career as police chief at Penn -- which began last fall -- there has not been an incident similar to this one. He added that the location of the robbery is particularly troubling.
"We are very, very concerned about this," Dorsey said. "As [the robberies] get closer to campus, this is my biggest fear. It doesn't happen often, but it shouldn't happen once. I'm going to do everything possible to make sure that it does not happen again."
Dorsey said that there are currently no plans to add more officers to the area.
