"My friend, as we were leaving the room, was like, 'He has a gun,'" said student Caitlin O'Brien.
O'Brien was one of nine students scattered inside an apartment Sunday night. She heard a friend answer a knock on the door.
"He said, 'No, you've got the wrong apartment," said O'Brien.
She hid herself and listened. The man at the door demanded their mobile phones first, then searched her friends' pockets.
"I assumed that he was going to come find me," said O'Brien. "Luckily he didn't search the entire apartment and he was just there to rob us."
Thursday, UCLA detectives were interviewing the victims, trying to get a detailed description of the suspect to put together a composite.
The suspect was described as Asian, in his mid-20s, 5 feet 9 inches tall, with acne scars.
Students pledged to check their peepholes more often.
"And if it is a stranger, I don't open the door," said one neighbor.
And if robbed, to give up the goods.
"Nothing is important compared to all of our lives being preserved and everyone being OK," said O'Brien.
