Gainesville Police are looking for an unknown man suspected of stealing a backpack near campus Thursday evening.
A man wearing a backpack was walking outside of Flashbacks Recycled Fashions at 818 W. University Ave. when a man walked up to him and grabbed the bag, said GPD Lt. Steve Bradford.
The contents of the backpack are unknown, Bradford said. It is unknown if the victim is a UF student.
The suspect is a 6-foot-tall man wearing a tank top and light blue or teal shoes, according to a UF Alert emailed to students at about 6:40 p.m. He was last seen running west toward Checkers.
Police dogs struggled to track the man’s scent because it was raining at the time, Bradford said.
Roi Coward, a Flashbacks employee, said the robbery did not happen inside the store, but he did see police cars nearby.
The investigation is ongoing and police will check video cameras in the area to help identify the suspect, Bradford said.
The last time UF Public Safety alerted students about a nearby crime was when a man in a Spider-Man costume burglarized a home on Halloween, according to a UF Public Safety email. The suspect was never found.
Police are asking anyone with information about the robbery to call UPD at (352)-392-1111 or the GPD at (352)-393-7500.
Contact Kyle Wood at kwood@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter at @Kkylewood
