First year student robbed at Plaza la Tierra
SEGOVIA - On Sunday, January 21 a first-year B.B.A. student was intercepted by two presumably unarmed men who took away the student's phone near Plaza La Tierra, Segovia, only a few meters away from the aqueduct.
According to the victim, who chose to stay anonymous, two unidentified men approached and asked him for the time, as he walked alone at 20h22 to Tuma cafe for a birthday dinner.
Having understood their question, but not knowing how to reply in Spanish, the victim reportedly took out the phone to reply, but the two robbers perpetuated with more questions.
“I was walking and reading, when they stopped and asked me, so I told them the time,” affirms the robbery victim.
Startled, the victim turned away, but the man who was asking the questions, reached for the phone.
Allegedly, the victim attempted to turn away, but the other man took a hold of the victim from behind, and began to search pockets for money or other valuable items. Overpowered, and afraid to lose any other of his belongings, the freshman released the phone and ran away.
“When they were searching, they were just constantly saying ‘money, money’… Maybe they had, maybe they didn’t have [weapons]. I didn’t have time to check. I made a decision to stay away from them, so I let go of my phone and left,” confesses the student.
It was then when the victim ran into second-year Psychology student Alessia Richiutti, who called the police and later acted as a translator at the precinct. This event was ratified in Atestado 556/18 (complaint) of the Direccion General de Policia, filed at 21h14 on the same day.
According to the police report, which is based on the complainant’s description, the first male “spoke Spanish with some kind of foreign accent, and was around 30 or 35 years old, 170cm or 175cm tall, had mulatto skin, short black hair and beard.”
Nearly the same information was provided about the assailant's sidekick, with the difference that the second one was believed to be “165cm tall, with a very thin complexion, mulatto skin, trimmer-cut hair.”
“They had an accent, so the police confirmed that they were from Latin America, and they also told me there was a similar case possibly done by the same people,” reveals the victim.
The day after the incident, the police called back the business student - who was fortunately not injured in any way - to look over faces of possible suspects. To this day, there has not been any updates on the investigation.
For university’s suggestions regarding the robbery and similar issues, The Stork contacted Clint Goodrich from Student Life, who denied any sort of criminal trend involving IE students in particular.
“I would say it is too early to say if they were targeting IE students. I haven’t heard of any other cases as of yet. I think the robberies… are isolated incidents, and people take advantage of situations, not specific people,” stated Goodrich.
Regarding the recommended course of action to be followed when a student is caught in an event of similar nature, the American assures that in this case the business student made the right choice.
“The first thing any student should always do is contact the police. Of course, we would also like to be informed of it, just so that we can assist however we can. Campus Life is the first place to go. We’re here to help and we are here to make sure that you are in touch with all the right people,” assures Clint.
Elaborating on the areas of university assigned to this type of issues, the IEU Athletics coordinator mentioned the following:
“If any student has anything like this happen…we [Student Life] will be more than willing to help get you in touch with the Mentoring and Counseling program, or the right person."
Lastly, having Segovia always been perceived as safe, the Student Life member discussed whether this assumption should change, and if students should stay vigilant and be more careful instead of always taking safety for granted.
“I think everyone in any part of the world always has to be careful. You have to take the adequate precautions, especially when you go out. Try not to walk alone or even in small groups, you should try to go with larger groups of more than three people to make sure there is that intimidating factor,” suggested Goodrich.
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