Penn Police reported two separate robberies in the vicinity of campus over the past five days.
The first incident occurred Friday evening at about 9:30 p.m. on the 4200 block of Spruce Street.
A male Temple University student was walking east on Spruce Street when he was approached by an assailant who demanded cash, police said.
The suspect -- described as a black male in his 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 150 to 160 pounds, wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants -- acted as though he were armed, although the victim never actually saw a weapon, police said.
The victim immediately complied with the robber's demand and handed over $100. He was not injured. Police said that the suspect was last seen running west on the 4200 block of Spruce Street.
The second robbery occurred Monday evening at about 9:30 p.m.
A 29-year-old Penn graduate student was walking to campus from 30th Street Station when he noticed that two male juveniles were following him. After the student crossed Chestnut Street on the 3200 block, he was accosted by the two boys, police said. The suspects reportedly pushed the student to the ground before taking a cell phone -- which the victim had been using at the time -- and emptying the cash out of his wallet before returning it to him.
Police described the first suspect as a black male, 14 to 16 years old, between 5 foot 6 and 5 foot 9. He is described as thin with a dark complexion. The suspect wore a white T-shirt and dark pants. He may have pulled a bandanna over part of his face before committing the robbery.
The second suspect is reportedly a 12- to 13-year-old black male, roughly 5 feet tall with a heavy build and a dark complexion. He, too, wore a white T-shirt and dark pants.
Police were disturbed by the apparent youth of the offenders in the robbery. Joseph Fischer, a Penn Police patrol captain, said that officers will aggressively enforce Philadelphia's curfew law as a general means to curb crime committed by youth.
According to the law, anyone under 18 years old may not be out past 10:30 p.m. between Sunday and Thursday or past midnight on weekends.
This robbery, however, occurred one hour before that curfew went into effect.
Police continue to follow leads following an upsurge in residential burglaries during the summer months.
Fischer estimated that about 15 to 20 burglaries occurred between late May and late August, mostly in apartments that were left unoccupied for the summer. He added that it now appears likely that the perpetrators knew that the target apartments would be unoccupied. This raises the possibility that cleaners or other subcontractors could be involved.
Police made several arrests over the summer in connection with some of the crimes, although none of these suspects appears to have ties to property-management companies.
There was concern that more burgled houses would be discovered as students returned to campus, but there has been only one such incident thus far. A male undergraduate student living on the 4000 block of Spruce Street returned to discover that a television and other items were missing from the basement where they had been stored. No arrests have been made in connection with that theft.
