"Kid jumps out and puts an AR-15 to my head:" Riverwest woman robbed at gunpoint hopes to raise awareness

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (CBS 58) – A woman in Riverwest was robbed at gunpoint and police say it wasn’t the one that happened Saturday in broad daylight.

“I was almost to the corner and this kid jumps out and puts an AR-15 to my head,” recalls Linda Zerbel.

Zerbel was walking home from the bus stop with her cane in one hand and her lunch box in the other.

“I dropped it and he said to keep my hands in the air, walk backward,” says Zerbel. “The other guy came, grabbed my lunch box, and they ran down Dousman.”

Zerbel says the suspects got away with her bus pass, house keys, and state I.D. –which was later returned by someone who had found it in the middle of the street.

“It was very scary,” says Zerbel. “I was just standing there shaking.”

Police confirm this wasn’t the only gunpoint robber reported Saturday evening. Just a few blocks down, the same thing happened to a man near Hadley and Booth-surprising news to residents in the area.

“I think it’s kind of crazy,” says Daniel Sevcik who lives in the area. “You just don’t really expect that to happen here.”

“Every time I closed my eyes last night, all I could see was that gun,” says Zerbel.

Zerbel hopes her alarming experience will help keep others alert.

“Both of them were dressed in all black,” describes Zerbel. “They had black wool hats on and a scarf around their faces covering their nose. I just want everyone to be aware of their surroundings.”

Zerbel says she’s lived in the area for 61 years-never experiencing such a threat.

Police confirm the ongoing investigations in the incidents.