Snatch and Grab: Despite Bold Purse Snatching, Students and RUPD Remain Confident
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Camden shares some problems faced with many former centers of American industry. Long decried as a hotbed of urban crime, revitalization efforts have been fighting an uphill battle to launder the city’s good name. Hindering these efforts are news of petty crimes that still crop up, like the purse snatching that lit up the inboxes of Rutgers Camden over the past winter break.
Described by Delaware River Port Authority Police as a robbery, the alert first reached RUC students via the RU-Community Advisory Message as an email that went out to all students on January 20th. In the email, it was stated that a robbery occurred at the nearby North Sixth Street Pedestrian Tunnel that links the two sides of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
Despite the theft, the mood on campus towards security and safety still remains positive. RUPD Officer Watley said “If it happens outside our jurisdiction, Camden handles it, but everything around here they keep us up to date.”
The report further states that the victim, an unnamed woman with no affiliation to Rutgers-Camden, had her purse forcibly removed from her person by an unidentified male. Details about the perpetrator were that he was wearing blue jeans and a “navy puff style with white lettering on the back” and that he fled “back towards the Rutgers University Campus.”
Although that final detail may be cause for alarm for some, Officer Watley had a message of calm: “As far as on campus, not common at all, stuff like that is not common at all…. if something seems out of the ordinary don’t hesitate to give us a call. We want to always be available, so if students need us just give us a call 24/7.”
Similarly, students did not seem to be paying the case any particular close mind with the semester now fully underway. Julie, a RUC student, said, “Well, there’s security pretty much everywhere around here. The only part that is not safe, I would say, is walking from lot 16 to get onto campus, but there is security driving around all the time. …It would be nice if we had those buttons [the police escort call buttons located throughout campus] in the parking lot.”
No further information on the case has been released by the DRPA, and the RUC security team asks that anyone with information or who remembers being in the area around that time, to contact the Delaware River Port Authority Police Department at 856-968-3301.
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