As two men brandishing a handgun robbed him of $60 in cash and his cell phone on Monday night, a freshman calmly negotiated with his jittery assailants, nearly got run over as they made their getaway and then hopped in a car to give chase.

Robert K. Lord ’08 was robbed at gunpoint at approximately 9:10 p.m. near his dorm Pennypacker Hall, according to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD). The suspects approached the 18-year-old as he walked on Harvard Street near Ware Street, talking with his girlfriend over his cell phone.

“Normal conflict is something that I can deal with—I’m a martial artist,” Lord said. “This guy pulls out a gun, point its at my stomach and the whole game changes right there.”

He said the two offenders engaged in “absurd dialogue” with one another. One suspect asked the other, “should I pop him?”

“It was such an absurd, scripted comment,” he said. “I almost found it humorous. If there was not a weapon pointed at my stomach waiting to be discharged, I would have laughed.”

But even while facing the barrel of a gun, Lord suspected the weapon was not real.

“It almost looked fake,” he said. “The clicking sound was almost like a plastic sound. Everything was designed to intimidate but they had a a low level of sophistication in doing so.”

Lord said he bargained with the two assailants to keep his electronic daily organizer and nearly convinced them to give back his cell phone.

“I said, ‘Give me back my cell phone. That’s of no value to you guys,’” he said. “They actually tried to give me back the cell phone.”

But the two men wanted to keep the battery and were too jittery to properly separate the battery and the phone.

“At that point, they started to get nervous. They were shaking,” Lord said. “I got the feeling these people were bullies—not killers. Bullies are a heck of a lot easier to get away from than murderers. I was certain that they were not going to shoot me, more or less.”

The suspects fled in a “small, red car” according to HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano, leaving their victim unharmed.

“This probably took about 10 to 15 seconds to go through,” Catalano said.

“I was screaming [for help] for 45 seconds and then I started to hear the sirens,” Lord said. “I was really impressed by the response capabilities of HUPD.”

Pennypacker resident Caroline S. Hostetter ’08—whose room looks out onto Ware Street—heard Lord’s yells and alerted HUPD to the robbery.