Over the weekend, a student at Austin Community College was FaceTiming with his girlfriend when he was robbed at gunpoint.
On Sunday night, 19-year-old Yale Gerstein was chatting with his girlfriend Baylee Luciani when three armed men broke into his apartment, beat him, and then escaped with thousand of dollars worth of valuable items.
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Gerstein recalled first hearing scratching at his apartment door in the 2300 block of Wickersham Lane, near East Riverside Drive. When he opened it, the three armed robbers pushed their way through and shoved Gerstein onto his bed. All the while, BayleeLuciani was watching in horror as the frightening scene was unfolding.
“They were hitting me in the head with the pistol saying ‘face down.’ Just don’t get shot, just don’t get shot…that was on my mind,” Gerstein said.
At first, Luciani believed the incident was a joke. However, she soon realized that the threat was all too real.
“I was scared, because they were saying I’m going to blow your head off, I’m going to kill you,” Luciani said. She also mentioned that the robbers were looking directly at the computer camera.
“I’m like wow… seriously watching an armed robbery happen to somebody that I care about,” said Luciani.
Luciani, who was in Dallas at the time, had the presence of mind to take screenshots on her phone when the men were beating up her boyfriend and searching through his apartment.
While Luciani was taking screenshots, her father, who was also seen in the video, proceeded to dial 911 to report the break in.
Eventually one of the robbers noticed that the computer was up and they disconnected the device from the FaceTime call.
Once the robbers had taken all the valuables that they could find, they fled the apartment complex. They crossed the street and then drove off in an older style white police cruiser, according to Daily Mail. According to Gerstein, all of the men were wearing gloves and one of the men was wearing a Halloween ghost mask during the invasion.
The crooks made off with thousands of dollars in Gerstein’s music equipment.
“I had just finished my first album as a solo artist,” Gerstein said. “That’s all lost.”
The Austin Police Department is continuing to investigate the incident. On Monday afternoon, the authorities said that they can’t release much information as of right now. However, the detective sad at this point this is an isolated incident.
What are your thoughts on this awful crime?
[H/T Daily Mail]
