Suspects on rental bikes rob woman in Northwest DC

Police say suspects on rental bikes robbed a woman in a Northwest D.C. neighborhood. The incident happened on a busy street with plenty of witnesses.

The suspects were wearing white masks and riding rental bikes when they swarmed around the victim walking in the area of 21st Street and N Street. The woman's purse was swiped, according to witnesses. The incident happened at around 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The suspects tried to escape in an alley, but they didn't know there wasn't outlet. The misstep allowed witnesses to get a good look at what was happening and for a Good Samaritan to spring into action.

"We heard a loud scream and someone saying we thought, 'Get down, get down,' and we leaned out of the window and we saw a woman running down the street screaming," said witness Cooper Schwartz. "So then we got our clothes on, we came outside and some other gentleman from across the street had already run down, and everybody was leaning out and just basically didn't know what had happened. We heard later that it had been a robbery and someone had snagged her bag."

A Good Samaritan was able to catch up with the suspects and get the victim's bag back.

FOX 5 has obtained surveillance video taken from a home security system showing at least six suspects on bikes apparently after the robbery. Police say one of the suspects was wearing a red hoodie.

"There were some rental bikes around on the street, but we didn't see anyone on them or claiming them," said Schwartz.

The resident who shared the surveillance video with us says he regularly shares his video with police to help solve crimes in the area. However, for this case, we were the first to tell him about this incident.

The suspects were able to escape from the area, but there were no injuries during the incident.