Would-be robber runs away after woman screams

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Police responded to reports of an attempted robbery at Gardenview Apartments, at 5209 North Clinton Street around 2:45 p.m. on Friday.

Raquel Foster, Public Information Officer for the Fort Wayne Police Department, said a woman was leaving her apartment and when she turned around to lock her door, a man appeared. The suspect approached the victim in the foyer area of the apartment building.

Timeline: Apartment robberies and attempts

According to the victim's mother, the man was wearing a dark ski mask, a royal blue hooded sweatshirt, and stonewashed blue jeans. He also had a mustache. Police said he was either white or of Hispanic descent. The suspect had one of his hands in his pocket as if he had a weapon, but police said he did not actually display a weapon.

"I honestly didn't think it would happen to us because we are close to Clinton," the victim's mother, Brenda, said. "We had a buddy system where if we would go out at night we would call and meet that person outside."

Police said the man asked for the woman’s keys. The woman then screamed and the man ran away without taking anything.

According to the woman's mother, the victim was 21 years old.

Foster said police believe this attempted robbery is related to Tuesday’s attempted robbery, also at Gardenview apartment complex. A woman was stabbed in the abdomen around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday after a suspect waited inside an apartment hallway and forced her inside her unit.

"He’s very familiar with this layout," Foster said. "He’s very comfortable walking through the area obviously because today he was in an apartment building."

Police believe the first eight robberies in this recent string were done by the same group of people, however, the latest five, were most likely copycat cases.

Previous attempts at Gardenview

January 8, 2013, 9:18 p.m. – A man said he was approached by two men with guns at his car in the parking lot. They robbed him of  his iPhone, wallet, and keys. No injuries were reported at the scene.

January 8, 2013, 9:34 p.m. – A woman said one man with a gun approached her at her car and robbed her of her purse that contained her wallet, credit cards, cash, and other personal items. No injuries were reported at the scene.

January 15, 2013, 10:15 a.m. – A woman was stabbed in the stomach and taken to the hospital in serious condition after a man waited inside an apartment hallway and  forced her inside her unit. According to police, the suspect got frustrated because of a language barrier, smacked her in the face and then grabbed a knife she placed in her apartment before she could get to it.

Fort Wayne police are still aggressively investigating 12 other robberies or attempted robberies at area apartment complexes.

"We are making progress and continue to investigate each incident," Raquel Foster, the public information officer for the Fort Wayne Police Department, said. "We did recover some evidence and we are waiting for that to be processed. We have identified a pool of suspects."

The first robbery happened January 7. By January 11, there had been eight incidents . Police think all of those cases are related. Between January 12 and Friday, there have been five more incidents. All 13 cases happened between six complexes: Cambridge Square, Gardenview, Colony Bay, Island Club, Canterbury Green and Autumn Creek.

Anyone with information about any of the incidents should call Fort Wayne police at (260) 427-1201 or Crime Stoppers at (260) 436-STOP.