Rifle-Toting Robber Flees Without Phone, Cash or Car

A Southern California college student who was visiting a friend in Piedmont was confronted Friday by a man carrying a rifle, but the robber eventually fled without taking anything, a Piedmont Police Department spokesman said.

The student had gone out to his car, parked on El Cerrito Avenue, the evening of May  24 when a black male adult wearing a long black jacket approached him and pulled a large black rifle from under the jacket, Police Capt. Scott Wyatt said.

The robber first demanded the student's iPhone, then cash, and when told  the student didn't have his phone or any money with him, demanded the keys to the car, Wyatt said. The robber spoke with a heavy accent, possibly African, he said.

When the student refused to hand over the keys, the man fled on foot toward Oakland Avenue, he said.