Another armed robbery reported near Temple University

Philadelphia police are investigating a series of armed home invasions involving Temple University students in off-campus housing.

The most recent incident occurred around 6:18 a.m. Monday, when police said two men dressed in black entered a house in the 1900 block of North 18th Street, several blocks from the university. One of the suspects was wearing a mask and was armed with an Uzi-type weapon, police said.

The suspects got away with several iPhones, an iPad, Apple Watches, a MacBook Pro and a Glock 19 handgun before driving off in a black 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross also stolen from the property, police said. No injuries were reported and the car was recovered, police said.

Four people, including two male Temple students, were inside the home at the time, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.

“They woke them up and they just had guns pointed at them,” a third housemate who wasn’t home at the time told WPVI.

“My roommates stayed calm and gave them what they wanted,” he said.

The home invasion was reported nearly two weeks after two similar incidents in the area also involving Temple students in off-campus housing.

On Nov. 9 at around 4:40 a.m., three masked men dressed in dark clothing — two of whom were armed with guns — entered a house also located in the 1900 block of North 18th Street, police said. They “approached” three 19-year-old female victims and fled with a laptop, backpack, car keys and identification, police said. No one was hurt.

“I hear it all digging upstairs in the kitchen. It sounded like several people so my heart started pounding. I was shaking in my bed. I didn’t know what to do,” one said. of victims, Kayla Barone, at WPVI. .

Barone said she tried to call to notify her two housemates, but they were sleeping. She then called 911. The men locked her two roommates in a room while forcing Barone to hand over her belongings, including her cell phone, she said. They fled when they realized she had called 911, she said.

Two days later, on November 11, at around 6 a.m., nine women and two men aged between 20 and 22 were woken up, arrested at gunpoint and locked in a basement after two masked men dressed in black entered their apartment on the 1300 block of North 15th Street, police said.

The suspects took each victim’s cellphones, debit cards and credit cards, as well as the keys to a silver 2015 Lincoln MKZ, before fleeing in the vehicle, police said. The car and two of the cellphones were eventually recovered, police said. No one was hurt.

The victims’ credit and debit cards were used shortly after the robbery, police said Tuesday when released surveillance footage of the two suspects.

The victims were also Temple students, school officials confirmed.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you, but when it does it’s like a shock,” one student told WPVI.

No arrests were made in any of the home invasion robberies.

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the three incidents are related, police said.