A robbery at San Jose State has triggered a warning, as the thieves in the case got some high-tech help with shared electric scooters seen on city streets.
Several juvenile suspects on scooters assaulted and robbed a student Wednesday. The victim suffered minor injuries. Two of the suspects were arrested, but four others are still at large, campus police said Thursday.
It was enough for university police to issue a campus-wide alert, warning students to be on the lookout.
The scooters seem to provide a quick and easy way for would-be criminals to escape, police said. They zoom by, weaving in and out of crowds virtually in every Bay Area city.
"Number one, they’re convenient. Number two, they’re cheap, and they’re everywhere," SJSU police Chief Alan Cavallo said. "So people are using them. I’ve seen local drug dealers downtown on scooters, and I think it's more of a convenience than anything."
Students were a bit on edge when hearing about the incident.
"Yeah, that’s scary because everyone has access to those scooters, and they’re being used for that," student Aly Thom said.
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Cavallo said he hopes the scooter company will share its usage data with them, so they can locate the other suspects involved. If not, he said he'll get a warrant to go after that information.
