HOBOKEN — A student at the Stevens Institute of Technology who got lost in northwest Hoboken early Sunday morning was brutally assaulted in a car by two men who had offered to drive him home, according to a police report.
The male student, who lives in the Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, got off the Light Rail at the Ninth Street Station in Hoboken just after 3 a.m. on Sunday, but found that he couldn’t take the elevator up the cliffs toward his house because it was out of service.
According to the report, he began to walk east on Eighth Street and was approached by two Hispanic men in a white car when he was hailing a cab. The student apparently confirmed that the men did not work for a taxi service, but got in their car anyway when they said they would help him get home, the report said.
When the student entered the car’s back seat, he was joined by one of the men, who asked how much money he was carrying. When he replied that he only had three dollars and asked to go to an ATM, the man allegedly began to beat him, said the report. They took his iPhone 5S, as well as his wallet, which contained two credit cards, a debit card, an insurance card, and a driver’s license.
They eventually let him out of the car at the Academy Bus Station on the corner of Fifteenth and Jefferson streets, where he contacted police. The student was then transported to Hoboken University Medical Center for treatment to several severe lacerations on his face and head.
The police report noted that the Academy terminal is equipped with several security cameras, and that the company would be turning the tapes over to the department. – Dean DeChiaro
College student in Hoboken climbs into strangers’ car, gets beaten and robbed
