JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There have been several armed robberies in different areas of Jacksonville over the last week, including at least three Saturday morning along Belle Rive Boulevard in Baymeadows and one on nearby Old St. Augustine Road.
On Tuesday night, there was an attempted armed carjacking on Tuesday night on Baymeadows Road, according to Jacksonville police.
One woman, who didn't want to be identified, said she was robbed at about 2 a.m. Saturday. She said she was walking from her car to her apartment.
"As I was walking, a guy came up to me, kind of ran up on me," she said.
She said the man had a mask over his face and a hoodie over his head and pointed a gun at her.
"Asked for my purse," she said. "He was saying, 'Give it to me, give it to me.'"
The young woman said she made things difficult for the robber.
"I said no. I kind of raised my voice at that time to alert other people if there were people around," she said. "And he got spooked and kind of ran off in the other direction."
The woman said it was frightening, but luckily she wasn't hurt and the man didn't get anything.
Police said after that happened, there were at least three other armed robberies in the same area. It's still too early to tell if they're related, but that's very likely, police said.
Police said Thursday they think they have solved the attempted carjacking case from Tuesday night, having arrested three juveniles they think are responsible. Police said the three are responsible for at least a half dozen other stickups over the past few months.
Detectives aren't releasing any more details just yet because they're trying to tie them to other cases.
Channel 4 crime analyst Ken Jefferson said no area is immune to crime, and people need to always be on the lookout and be aware of their surroundings. Jefferson said the woman in this story seems to have done the right thing.
"The area may have been populated, so if you made enough noise, she would attract someone's attention, and obviously the bad guy knew that," Jefferson said. "He didn't want to hang around, didn't want to be spotted or identified more so than the ID she'd give to police, and he got out of there. That's a good thing in this case."
"At least by shouting I definitely made the right choice because I kind of spooked him and he ran off," the woman said.
If you have any information about any of these cases, call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.