`Idol’ Finalist OK After Vegas Robbery

LAS VEGAS – Former “American Idol” contestant Mikalah Gordon was “in a panic” but unharmed after being robbed at gunpoint, her mother said Thursday.

Victoria Cavaricci said robbers accosted her 18-year-old daughter and a male friend early Wednesday on a sidewalk in a neighborhood about seven miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas police confirmed the robbery had occurred and said they were investigating.

“She’s not physically harmed, but she’s in a panic,” Cavaricci told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview from her Las Vegas home. Cavaricci said the robbers took a cell phone and $5.

Gordon reached the finals of the 2005 “American Idol” singing competition. She graduated from a Las Vegas high school and now lives in Los Angeles.

Cavaricci said her daughter was unable to talk with a reporter early Thursday.