Features

Three high school-age couples parked on a romantic spring Saturday night on a Grizzly Peak Boulevard turnout suddenly found themselves in a most unromantic encounter—a stick-up. 

According to UC Berkeley police, the couples were parked near South Park Drive about 11:30 p.m. when another couple pulled up nearby in a small white or gray four-door sedan with California plates. 

According to the UCPD report, a man got out of the newly arrived car and walked over to where the three couples were parked, striking up a conversation before returning to his car. 

That’s when things got dicey. 

Back at the car, the new arrival grabbed a pistol and returned to the high school youths, where he pointed his weapon at the students and demanded their valuables and car keys, then ordered them to hike downhill and into the woods. 

After they heard the bandit speed away, the youths hiked back up the hill and managed to flag down a passing motorist. 

Officers from both the Berkeley and campus police departments searched for the bandits without success. 

The victims described the gunman as a Hispanic man in his 20s, about 5’10” with black hair and a goatee. He was wearing a black beanie and a long white baggy tee shirt. His companion was a blonde woman, with “not short” hair, according the police crime alert. 

UCPD asks anyone with information about the crime to call their Criminal Investigation Bureau at 642-0472 during regular office hours or 642-6760 at other times.