Lincoln Police are sorting out the details following a string of robberies Wednesday night. Captain Todd Kocian says it all started just before 6:00 p.m. near 9th and A Street. “Officers contacted a 58-year-old victim who said he was cleaning the interior of his vehicle when two males dressed in dark clothing approached him.”
The man told police one of the suspects told him to hand over the car keys and then grabbed them. The suspects then left the area in a small white Kia Sportage. Just after 10:00 p.m. police were called to a home near 16th & D where a 24-year-old man said he was sitting in the back of his pickup bed when a white Kia Sportage SUV with Nebraska license plate WHD663 pulled up next to him.
He was approached by three men and one of the suspects, dressed all in dark clothing, struck him in the face and took his vehicle keys. Officers determined the Kia Sportage had been reported stolen out of Omaha.
Around 11:20 p.m. police were called to a home near 16th & D Street on the report of a belated robbery. The 36-year-old man told officers he was sitting on the steps outside of his residence when a man dressed in all dark clothing approached him, asked what was in his pockets and then punched him in the face. “The suspect then rummaged through the victims’ pockets and took his cell phone valued at $800,” Kocian says.
Minutes later the same man called police and says the suspects returned and drove away in his wife’s Pontiac Grand Prix. Around 12:30 a.m. Thursday police were called to the area of 41st and N Streets for a disturbance. They found a 15-year-old boy inside a vehicle that had been stolen moments before. He was taken into custody and arrested for theft by receiving stolen property.
Police continue their search for the other suspects and the stolen Kia.