Drizzt
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Home invasions on the rise
May 31,2006
Miriam Ramirez
Monitor Staff Writer
WESLACO — It’s a horrific, perhaps all-too common scenario.
Masked men armed with high-powered weapons storm a home and often gag and beat the homeowner — or anyone — in sight.
Most perpetrators know exactly what they are looking for: sometimes large amounts of cash, sometimes bundles of drugs.
Other times, in stranger-to-stranger invasions, perpetrators target homes in affluent neighborhoods that appear to hold valuables inside.
Since last July, there have been eight reported cases of home invasions — seven of them violent.
In half of the reported cases, there was some type of relationship between the victim and the assailants. The rest were reported as random acts of aggravated robbery.
Before this year, most took place in rural parts of western Hidalgo County, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.
But in recent months, criminals have boldly struck within the more visible city limits, and more and more are appearing to be stranger-on-stranger.
In the most recent reported assault Monday, four men forced their way into a home on the 300 block of De Los Santos Street, just east of Texas Boulevard on the city’s north side. The home invasion marked the first for the city this year.
The men, dressed in all black, wore bandanas to conceal their identity and were armed, one of them carrying an AK-47 type of automatic weapon, said Weslaco Police Spokesman David Molina.
They kicked and pistol-whipped the 47-year-old homeowner and then tied up his wife, daughter and two grandchildren, said Molina, who would not release the victim’s names.
While the family remained tied with duct tape, the men ransacked the home, apparently searching for money. Approximately a half-hour later, the men left the home without any cash. However, they took the family vehicle, a brown 2002 GMC Envoy with paper plates.
"They told police they didn’t know their attackers," Molina said. "There is no relationship that we know of."
To combat the growing trend of home invasions in the western part of the county, the Sheriff’s Department organized a Homicide/Robbery Unit, which focuses on cases of kidnappings, robberies and home invasions. The sheriff says the problem has unfortunately extended into parts east of U.S. Highway 281, unlike before.
"Now it’s on the east side and crept over from rural to urban," Treviño said.
Officials say while Monday’s stranger-on-stranger attack is becoming a more common occurrence, the pseudo-cop method is still the most common.
At times, operating on some inside information, intruders — usually attacking in groups of four, five, even up to 10 people — bust through the door wearing some type of bogus law enforcement clothing and restrain everyone in the house.
"Either they have specific information where drugs are kept or know where the drug money is kept," Treviño said.
Because both parties are quite possibly involved in illegal activity, such as drug cartels or money laundering schemes, many pseudo-cop invasions go unreported, Treviño said. And it is not uncommon for perpetrators in these cases to operate on flawed intelligence, leading to cases of mistaken identity that in some cases field tragic results.
In one case just over a year ago, a man was killed in his Donna home, in a normally quiet neighborhood north of the Expressway, when a group of men forced their way into a home as the family slept. Xavier Aguilar was shot in the shoulder and head as his wife and children looked on. Police later said it was a case of mistaken identity, in which the men stormed the wrong house.
Such heavy ramifications are why authorities are now on alert.
http://cf.themonitor.com/SiteProces...lates/Details.cfm&StoryID=13471&Section=Local
For those unaware of Texas geography, this is pretty near the border in South Texas. Lots of drugs and bad guys running around those parts, and evidently not just a few innocents being caught in the crossfire.
May 31,2006
Miriam Ramirez
Monitor Staff Writer
WESLACO — It’s a horrific, perhaps all-too common scenario.
Masked men armed with high-powered weapons storm a home and often gag and beat the homeowner — or anyone — in sight.
Most perpetrators know exactly what they are looking for: sometimes large amounts of cash, sometimes bundles of drugs.
Other times, in stranger-to-stranger invasions, perpetrators target homes in affluent neighborhoods that appear to hold valuables inside.
Since last July, there have been eight reported cases of home invasions — seven of them violent.
In half of the reported cases, there was some type of relationship between the victim and the assailants. The rest were reported as random acts of aggravated robbery.
Before this year, most took place in rural parts of western Hidalgo County, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.
But in recent months, criminals have boldly struck within the more visible city limits, and more and more are appearing to be stranger-on-stranger.
In the most recent reported assault Monday, four men forced their way into a home on the 300 block of De Los Santos Street, just east of Texas Boulevard on the city’s north side. The home invasion marked the first for the city this year.
The men, dressed in all black, wore bandanas to conceal their identity and were armed, one of them carrying an AK-47 type of automatic weapon, said Weslaco Police Spokesman David Molina.
They kicked and pistol-whipped the 47-year-old homeowner and then tied up his wife, daughter and two grandchildren, said Molina, who would not release the victim’s names.
While the family remained tied with duct tape, the men ransacked the home, apparently searching for money. Approximately a half-hour later, the men left the home without any cash. However, they took the family vehicle, a brown 2002 GMC Envoy with paper plates.
"They told police they didn’t know their attackers," Molina said. "There is no relationship that we know of."
To combat the growing trend of home invasions in the western part of the county, the Sheriff’s Department organized a Homicide/Robbery Unit, which focuses on cases of kidnappings, robberies and home invasions. The sheriff says the problem has unfortunately extended into parts east of U.S. Highway 281, unlike before.
"Now it’s on the east side and crept over from rural to urban," Treviño said.
Officials say while Monday’s stranger-on-stranger attack is becoming a more common occurrence, the pseudo-cop method is still the most common.
At times, operating on some inside information, intruders — usually attacking in groups of four, five, even up to 10 people — bust through the door wearing some type of bogus law enforcement clothing and restrain everyone in the house.
"Either they have specific information where drugs are kept or know where the drug money is kept," Treviño said.
Because both parties are quite possibly involved in illegal activity, such as drug cartels or money laundering schemes, many pseudo-cop invasions go unreported, Treviño said. And it is not uncommon for perpetrators in these cases to operate on flawed intelligence, leading to cases of mistaken identity that in some cases field tragic results.
In one case just over a year ago, a man was killed in his Donna home, in a normally quiet neighborhood north of the Expressway, when a group of men forced their way into a home as the family slept. Xavier Aguilar was shot in the shoulder and head as his wife and children looked on. Police later said it was a case of mistaken identity, in which the men stormed the wrong house.
Such heavy ramifications are why authorities are now on alert.
http://cf.themonitor.com/SiteProces...lates/Details.cfm&StoryID=13471&Section=Local
For those unaware of Texas geography, this is pretty near the border in South Texas. Lots of drugs and bad guys running around those parts, and evidently not just a few innocents being caught in the crossfire.
