Armed men target Center City apartment while student inside

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- The search is on for two armed suspects who broke into a Center City apartment in broad daylight.

One person, a student at the University of the Arts, was home at the time.

It happened just after 11 a.m. Tuesday in a first-floor apartment on the 1400 block of Lombard.

Police say two armed men stormed into the apartment while one of the residents, a 19-year-old woman, was home.

Her roommate, also a 19-year-old woman, spoke to Action News but did not want to be identified. She was in class at the time of the robbery.

"Someone knocked at our door. She opened it and they barged their way in and then they were asking her for money, and they ransacked the place, like looking," she said.

The two men got away in a car heading westbound on Lombard Street. Police believe this may have been a crime of opportunity.

"Criminals, unfortunately, strike when they can and so it doesn't matter if it's in the middle of the day or the middle of the night, they're going to strike when they have to opportunity to do so," said Lt. John Stanford.

"I don't think it was anything directed towards us or anything like that. I think it was just a random act," the resident we spoke to said.

Word spread quickly among the building's other residents about what had happened.

"I think it's crazy. I've never had any issues with violence or anything like that around here," said Tom Sitarski.

"That's weird. I felt like this was an okay neighborhood," said Youry Samy.

The place is ransacked, so the roommates will be staying elsewhere for a while.

"Our school was nice enough to set us up with a room so we can stay there for a couple of weeks until we can get back together," said the roommate.

The suspects got away with the students' rent money, a phone, an Xbox video game console and other personal items.