The following afternoon—in an incident that Catalano said is likely related to the first daylight robbery—a Harvard undergraduate was walking through the Yard near Widener Library when five black males of high school age asked the victim for his money and demanded to see his pockets.

One of the suspects stated that he had a gun and would shoot the victim. The suspects did not, however, display a gun.

Catalano said that no arrests have been made in the robberies and declined to comment on whether the robberies are linked to the Dec. 12 and Nov. 12 incidents because the investigation is ongoing.

But the recent string of crimes in the usually quiet Yard has lead HUPD to take extra precautions, Catalano said.

“Right now we’re paying more attention to the Yard and assigning more units to the Yard, with both plain-clothes and uniformed officers in the times these incidents have occurred,” he said.

Catalano said HUPD is also working with CRLS security and administration to prevent future incidents.

“We feel there are hundreds and hundreds of kids who cut through our Yard, and not all of them are bad kids,” Catalano said. “We don’t want to try to paint all of them in the same picture, we just want to try and identify the very small amount who are causing the problems.”

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.