Santa Cruz Police Investigating the Fourth Armed Robbery in Two Weeks

A 20-year-old woman from Los Altos pulled a knife and screamed early Tuesday, thwarting the fourth late-night armed robbery in Santa Cruz over the past two weeks.

The woman was held up at 2:10 a.m. at the 800 block of California Street by two men in black hooded sweatshirts with bandannas over part of their faces. One of them pulled out a black handgun.

The woman pulled a knife and screamed, which prompted neighbors to call 911. One of the men knocked the knife out of her hand, but both ran away without getting any money.

Santa Cruz police have assigned two officers to the string of late-night crimes, all of which involved a handgun. Three of them are being investigated as if they were linked, according to police spokesman Zach Friend.

"We're operating under the assumption it's the same two people," said Friend. "It makes more sense than to go back to it later and say maybe there were other cases associated. There were similar methods and similar parts of town."