After being held up at gunpoint by four robbers, six teenagers — three of them University students — say they are hoping their brush with danger will cause their apartment complex to better the safety on its property.
The group was robbed early Monday morning at an apartment in the University Commons complex on the 4600 block of Burbank Drive. The robbery, which happened at around 1 a.m., lasted for about an hour. The robbers took about $400, two video cameras, many DVDs, an X-Box, cell phones, wallets and keys.
Some of the students who were robbed said the breezeway leading to their apartment was too dark, which helped the robbers easily access their apartment.
The Daily Reveille did not investigate what the group calls “poor lighting,” and the University Commons declined comment.
Brandon Laborde, a Baton Rouge Community College freshman and tenant of the apartment that was robbed, said the robbers were able to go up and down the stairs to their apartment undetected because their stairwell is poorly lit.
And though one of his friends did let one of the robbers in when the robber knocked, Laborde said there already were too many safety problems, like the poor lighting and lack of surveillance at the complex.
According to the University Common’s Web site, the complex has “well-lighted grounds” and “24-hour courtesy patrol.” But these students do not believe the complex is holding up to its promises.
Laborde said he hopes the complex will install more lighting and other safety precautions.
A University Commons spokesperson declined to comment but alluded to the fact that some of the students’ charges against the complex may not be true.
“A lot of people can say things, but that doesn’t mean they’re true,” the spokesperson said and explained there is “a lot more” to the crime but would not say what was meant by the comment.
The robbers forced all four people in the living room, which is where the front door is located, onto the ground and put pillow cases and blankets over their heads.
Phil McKinzie, a University freshman and tenant of the apartment, said one of the robbers told him that if he moved the robber would kill him.
“So I wasn’t going anywhere,” McKinzie said.
Laborde and his girlfriend were in Laborde’s room during the robbery. The robbers forced them on the ground at gunpoint.
McKinzie and Laborde said they heard one of the robbers tell another: “Don’t kill ‘em, just cap ‘em.”
When they finally heard silence in the apartment, they were afraid to move.
The University Commons replaced the locks to their apartment because their keys were stolen. Laborde also said it appears that the complex may have installed extra lighting since the crime.
The three University students robbed were McKinzie, Kyle Homan, a political science freshman, and Christina Strain, a chemistry freshman.