By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS - A wave of gunpoint robberies around the University of Cincinnati campus - one involving an abduction - prompted administrators Monday to send a warning e-mail to all 34,000 students, reminding them to walk in groups and call police about anyone suspicious.

Victims report being punched and threatened with guns. A UC violin student told police he was yanked off Riddle Road into a white van at gunpoint Thursday and forced to withdraw $440 from two ATMs.

The robbery of a student Sunday night on campus, and the holdup of another student Sunday night at a Calhoun Street ATM, may be linked to at least five other aggravated robberies over the last two weeks around the university, Cincinnati police said.

The robbers sometimes have used vehicles and sometimes not, said Detective Eric Karaguleff. Three of the holdups - the one Sunday and two last week on Ludlow Avenue in Clifton - happened at ATMs.

"We think their intention has been to get these people into vehicles," Karaguleff said. "That hasn't always worked. Usually, they demand their PIN number."

Cincinnati police have beefed up staffing to catch the robbers, said Sgt. Tim Klayer, investigative supervisor. "We need to get these guys," he said.

The latest victim was Nicholas Duskey, an 18-year-old student from Camden, Ohio, who lost $60 when three men approached him and two friends about 9:10 p.m. Sunday while he took money out of the ATM on Calhoun Street. He told police a man walked up to him and said, "You know what this is. Give it up."

Tommy Ray works next door to that ATM, at Rites of Passage Body Art. He said he considers the neighborhood very safe.

"I love this little area here," he said Monday afternoon. "I walk around here a lot by myself, and I haven't had any problems.

"But some of these kids, it's their first time in the city. They're probably not as careful as maybe they should be."

The violin student, 21-year-old Ryan Miller, told police he was forced into a white van at gunpoint Thursday. Miller said all three men were armed with guns, were black, appeared between 20 and 25, and were wearing black bubble coats, according to the incident report. Two, he said, had blue bandannas around their heads.

That same night, minutes before Miller's 11 p.m. incident, another man told police two men jumped out of a white van at the corner of Ludlow Avenue and Whitfield Street, beat him up and stole his wallet with $70 in it.

Sunday night, a UC student robbed on campus at Corry Boulevard and Stadium Drive was punched in the face, said university spokesman Greg Hand. The robbers, who said they had a gun but didn't show one, stole his wallet and cell phone.

Hand said it was the first aggravated robbery on campus in years. In the city of Cincinnati, robberies declined last year by 10 percent, compared with 2002. Still, 2,172 robberies were recorded in 2003 - a more than 42 percent increase over 2000.

The university often sends mass e-mails about serious crime on its Bearcat Online system, Hand said. In Monday's e-mail, UC Assistant Police Chief Robert Rohrbach described three male black suspects as about 18, one wearing baggy jeans, a black bubble coat and a red knit cap. Two, he said, were 5-foot-7, the third 5-foot-10.

"The university's a city within a city," said UC Detective Dave Freudiger. "It's an open campus. It's not like we can put up a wall with barbed wire on top of it."

• Anyone with information is asked to call UC Police, 556-1111; Freudiger, 556-4963; the university's tip line, 556-COPS; or Crime Stoppers, 352-3040.

Staying safe

Cincinnati Police gave these tips Monday about protecting yourself from being robbed at an ATM:

Choose ATMs in well-lit areas; use drive-up ATMs when possible

Look around carefully before withdrawing money

UC students should walk with at least one other person, or call the university's Nightwalk program, 556-6110, for an escort home.

"Just be aware of your surroundings," said UC Detective Dave Freudiger. "Make sure no one's watching you. And if you think someone is, go get money somewhere else."

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com