The Tucson Police Department is investigating after a UA student was threatened at knifepoint while working at Campus Candy on University Boulevard.

Indiana Rodrigues, a psychology freshman, said she was working alone at the candy store on Tuesday night when a man in his late 30s walked in. Rodrigues had to read the man’s lips in order to understand that he couldn’t speak. The man used a pen and a notepad to request candy, Rodrigues said.

After turning away from him for a few seconds, Rodrigues turned back around to read “empty the register” on the man’s notepad. Not realizing he was serious, Rodrigues said she paused and looked at him. The man then showed her he had a switchblade knife, and she gave him the money in the register.

“It just happened so fast, it didn’t really hit me,” Rodrigues said. “I may have cried for like 10 seconds but then I got stuff together and it was fine.”

The man took the money and left the store. Rodrigues said she called the police immediately.

Business owners and managers on University Boulevard said they were surprised to hear of the robbery. Tom Cassidy, co-owner of Ooo! Outside of Ordinary, said the Marshall Foundation does a great job providing security to its properties in the area.

“I was unhappy and distressed. I don’t like it,” Cassidy said. “Whoever it was had a lot of nerve doing it, but unfortunately these are not very good times and desperate people do desperate things.”

Despite being at work at the time of the incident, Hanah Klein, manager of Swindlers, a clothing store adjacent to Campus Candy, said she was unaware of what happened until a day later. Business owners in the area should consider always having more than one employee working at all times, Klein said.

Mariam Edwards, co-owner of Campus Candy, said her employee handled the situation well and that other employees were notified of the incident. Her biggest concern when learning about the incident was her employee’s safety, Edwards said.

Like most businesses along University Boulevard, the candy shop has surveillance cameras.

The Tucson Police Department is currently investigating the case and could not release the police report for the incident.

Students said they usually feel safe around the university, especially in a populated place like University Boulevard.

“I would never expect something to happen like that right off of University [Boulevard],” said Evan Smith, an engineering freshman.

While she had never been in this type of situation before, Rodrigues said she was glad nothing worse happened.

“I never feel unsafe there; it’s a really great place to work,” Rodrigues said. “It was just one incident that happened, and it could’ve happened anywhere.”

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