In an attack bearing many of the same markings of a street robbery last week in which a man reportedly lost a few teeth and his girlfriend’s purse, a man and a woman were robbed this morning just after midnight on 18th Ave near E. Pike, according to a SPD report.

According to the report, the couple was walking on 18th Ave when they tried to pass a group of three men. One of the men struck the male victim in the head and sent him crashing to the sidewalk. As the attacker stole the man’s wallet, another man in the group grabbed the woman’s purse and struck her in the head with a large, metal chain. The three men ran north on 18th from the scene of the attack.

According to the victims, the attackers were white males in their 20s. One wore a white tank top under a dark jacket and was wearing a knit cap at the time of the attack.

We’re checking with the Seattle Fire Department for information about any injuries the victims suffered in the robbery.

In last week’s attack near 18th and Prospect, a couple was robbed as they walked home just after 1 AM. There were some reports that the attackers in that incident wielded a tire iron. We also recently reported on this woman’s escape from purse snatchers near Mercer and Harvard. Earlier in March, a woman had her purse stolen outside her Bellevue Ave apartment. The attacks come as East Precinct has seen a moderation of other crimes like business and residential burglaries.

We’ll pull together an updated report mapping recent Capitol Hill street robberies soon. Another area to examine comes from our CHS Crime Forum where user Boylston911 reports that north Broadway also has a growing street robbery problem:

It has been a common subject between my peers and myself that there have been a lot of muggings around the north broadway area. A friend of mine was mugged by three men while smoking a cigarette outside of her apartment complex. A couple of days later, another friend of mine had to call 911 for a customer because she was mugged a block away from his bar. While talking about these muggings with a co-worker, he told me that a friend of his was jumped on aloha. There have been numerous other muggings i’ve heard about while sitting at the bar at sun liquor. How can we stop this?! I am concerned for everyone’s safety and to open to all opinions on how to make our community safer.

CHS has not reported on or seen evidence of SPD reports documenting ‘numerous’ incidents in this area of the Hill but we’ll look into it.