An armed man threatened to rob a woman in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood Sunday evening but fled without taking anything when the woman's boyfriend interrupted the crime, according to police. The attempted robbery at 4:43 p.m. near the intersection of 13th Avenue SE and 8th Street SE was the latest in a recent string of brazen crimes, including 28 robberies since Aug. 1, on and around the U's Minneapolis campus.

Despite the serious and unusual nature of some of the crimes near campus this semester, including an armed robbery inside a University classroom building, crime levels around campus are not higher than normal.

U of M police issued a campus-wide crime alert Monday morning. Police records said the following:

The 23-year-old woman said she was scraping ice off of her car's windshield when a man approached, demanded money and displayed a handgun. The woman backed away from the armed man, and her boyfriend stepped out of their residence and onto the sidewalk. The gunman fled north on Eighth Street. Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt. Police searched for the gunman but didn't find him Sunday.

He was described as a black male, aged 25 to 29, with a dark complexion. He stood 6' tall with a medium build. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt with black sweatpants. His sweatshirt hood was up and pulled tight around his face, obscuring everything except his eyes, nose and mouth. The gun was a black revolver with a thin barrel.

Anyone with information or tips should call the Minneapolis Police Tips Line at 612-692-8477 and reference case number MP-13-407893.