Hidden behind a black mask, a do rag or a scarf and usually wearing glasses, the suspect turns up in a North Baltimore neighborhood with a gun.
He forces his victims to walk or drive in their own cars to an ATM. They take out money, hand it over ? and then he takes off.
Six apparently related robberies in the past six weeks, generally following the same pattern, have residents of Guilford and Homeland anxious as police step up their presence on the trail of a suspect they think might be taking cash for a drug habit.
“We are ensuring that we have extra police officers, in uniform and plainclothes, on the street during the affected times in the areas that have been experiencing these incidents,” said Maj. Michael Pristoop, commander of the Northern District.
At the same time, he said, “We want to keep it in perspective…We?re talking about a handful of incidents over a period of time.”
The robberies apparently go back to the evening of May 30, when a woman was robbed at gunpoint in Guilford. On the same day over in the Northeastern District, a man in a black mask and a “distinctive shirt” forced a man and woman to drive him in their car to an ATM on Roland Avenue and withdraw cash, Pristoop said.
The suspect got quiet until the night of June 25, Pristoop said, when a law professor was forced to take off some of his clothes in the rain in Guilford, and drive to an ATM for a withdrawal.
A group of women were robbed the next night, also in Guilford, forced to walk to an ATM and then to cash a check before the police were called. Another robbery followed on June 28, and on the Fourth of July another woman was forced into her car in Charles Village and had to drive to an ATM for money, he said.
Police are asking residents to call them “whenever they see anything out of place in the neighborhood,” Pristoop said.
The robberies came up at a recent meeting between police and community board members, who wanted to know if the man was violent, said Doug Gibson, a community relations officer in the Northern District.
“People in the neighborhood have been aware of it,” said Robert Doory, a Homeland resident for 26 years. “I think we still live in a comparatively safe community, and as a result any crime is a significant concern.”
