Dive Brief:

• Two men working on a home being built in the Rockridge section of Oakland, Calif., were robbed at gunpoint, giving up cash and cell phones late Monday afternoon to two men who then fled in a car driven by a third person.
• Police said the suspects sound like the same thieves who robbed three workers in East Oakland earlier in the afternoon.
• On Nov. 18, four house painters were robbed, and six construction workers on a home-renovation project were stuck up Nov. 29.

Dive Insight:

Police have descriptions of the robbers and of their getaway car, and none of the workers in the four incidents was hurt. It's more than a little disturbing, however, to think someone has come up with the idea of targeting people working in the construction trades. Residential sites are somewhat isolated anyway, since they are usually not in busy urban areas, and that plays to the crooks' advantage.