News > November 20, 2008

By CeCe Brooks | Asst. news editor

Two male teenagers were charged with armed robbery on Nov. 13 by the Winston-Salem Police Department regarding two recent off-campus robberies close to campus.

One of the suspects has been arrested and the other is being held at another facility, but warrants have been obtained and he will be arrested upon release.

The teenagers are charged with the attempted armed robbery of a male on Oct. 27 at his house on Brookwood Drive off Polo Road.

They are also charged for the robbery of a female university student who was robbed at gunpoint on Oct. 28 in the parking lot of the Deacon Ridge housing complex on University Parkway.

Another investigation led the police to the two suspects. The Winston-Salem Police were investigating the kidnapping of a woman on Pine Knolls Road.

She was later found unscathed in the trunk of a stolen vehicle. One of the male suspects was charged in this case.

The Winston-Salem Police Department, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department and the Kernersville Police Department have all participated in the robbery and kidnapping investigations.

University Police are still looking into the armed robbery of a university student on Oct. 30 in Parking Lot R2 near Polo Residence Hall. A female student was exiting her vehicle when an unidentified man with a handgun forced her to stay in the car and drive him to several ATM machines before he told her to drop him off near downtown Winston-Salem.

The two students, who police determined had lied about being held up at gunpoint, were charged Nov. 12 with filing a false report, a misdemeanor.

The students reported that while jogging Nov. 6 on a path from the university toward Reynolda Village a man had come out of the woods with a gun and demanded they give him all the money they had.

They are scheduled to appear in Forsyth County District Court on Dec. 8. The students have also been referred to the Office of the Dean of Students.

Despite the arrests and false report, the university is continuing the extra safety precautions it set forth on Nov. 6. Unrestricted entry is now limited from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., when the guards begin checking IDs for entry.

The Polo Road gate now closes at 6 p.m rather than 10 p.m.

The university and Winston-Salem police departments have also added more patrolmen.