College students duct taped during armed home invasion, robbery in Oakland

PITTSBURGH — Two college students were bound with duct tape and held at gunpoint early Monday morning inside their home in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.

Police said the incident happened in the 3300 block of Niagara Street.

One of the victims, 21-year-old Ryan Foster, said two men armed with guns and wearing sweatshirts and masks entered the back of the house through an open door about 4 a.m.

“It's like the last thing I could have expected,” Foster, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, said.

He and his roommate were each bound and forced into a small shower.

“(They) tied him up, tied his face up really, really bad, too, and then they took him, brought him downstairs, gun to his head. They both had guns,” Foster said.

The men repeatedly demanded money from Foster and his 21-year-old roommate.

“They were literally saying, like, ‘You got three seconds to tell me or I’m going to shoot you in the head,’” Foster said.

Foster said he believes he knows who the gunmen might be and said they looked like two men he'd met previously at a nearby gas station.

After taking Foster’s iPhone, wallet and some cash, the men fled. Ryan and his roommate were then able to free themselves and ran to a nearby gas station to call police.

Foster still had marks around his hands from the duct tape when he spoke to Channel 11. His roommate also has injuries from the ordeal.

“They duct-taped my roommate, like whole face… his hair’s ripped out. It was really, really bad,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Cox Media Group