Batman, masked bandit rob man of cookie fixings outside apartment

CHAPEL HILL -- Alex Locklear said his girlfriend just wanted to take some chocolate-chip cookies home to her family for Christmas.

But a man dressed like Batman and another man wearing a black leather jacket and an orange bandana around his face pointed a gun at Locklear and made off with a couple of sacks of groceries, Locklear said.

His girlfriend had left the groceries in the car, and Locklear had gone to retrieve them when he saw the men walking toward him and heard them yelling.

He said he was scared when he saw the gun, then he had another thought: "I cannot believe I'm getting robbed by somebody in a Batman costume."

Locklear reported the robbery at the College Park Apartments complex shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday. He said Chapel Hill police responded quickly and used dogs to track the robbers.

"They really gave a lot of effort to help me find $30 worth of groceries," he said.

Locklear said the men also demanded his wallet, but he hadn't carried it with him to the car.

College Park Apartments is the same complex where three UNC-Chapel Hill football players say a man and two women tied up, molested and tried to rob them. But Locklear said crime is not normally a problem there.

"This is the first time this happened to me," he said. "It made me a little bit wiser that everybody's not out to be good. You just don't know what could happen to you."

The robbery did not completely ruin the couple's Christmas. They just went out and bought more chocolate chips.