Woman reports robbery by unidentified suspect

Officers from the Bloomington Police Department responded Tuesday afternoon after a woman reported she was robbed of her purse and cell phone at the intersection of East University and South Mitchell streets.

When police arrived at the scene at about 2:58 p.m., the victim told police she had been walking east on East University Street when a white sedan pulled up next to her, BPD Detective Sgt. John Kovach said. The 31-year-old victim told police she thought the driver in the sedan was going to ask for directions, so Kovach said she approached the car.

Kovach said the victim then saw the driver, a black male possibly in his 30s, pointing a revolver handgun at her. The suspect told the woman, “Purse and phone now,” Kovach said.

The woman was carrying a case with a laptop in it, Kovach said, so she pulled the laptop out of the bag and laid it on the ground beside the bag and her Apple iPhone.

According to the victim, the suspect then told her, “Take the computer and go,” Kovach said. The woman then grabbed the laptop and ran away from the scene. She did not witness the man taking her belongings.

Kovach said the victim ran into a postal worker, who called police.

Inside her purse was $100 in cash and credit cards, Kovach said.

A suspect has not been identified by police, Kovach said. But the victim described the suspect as a black male with a medium skin tone, thin facial features, large eyes surrounded in dark circles and short black hair.

The victim told police the suspect was driving a white, four-door sedan, possibly a decommissioned police car without a spotlight.

Kovach said police contacted AT&T and tried tracking the iPhone’s location, but the phone had since been shut off. Kovach said AT&T will continue pinging the phone occasionally to try and target its location.  

— Mark Keierleber