Home-invasion robberies on the rise on LI
BY MICHAEL FRAZIER AND JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
STAFF WRITERS
October 17, 2005
On a stifling summer night, two masked man emerged from the dark and one punched Linda Bible in the face.
At gunpoint, he ordered Bible and her 14-year-old daughter to stay put on the sofa. He ransacked the modest West Babylon house shouting, "Where's the safe? Where's the good stuff?"
Bible's ordeal is similar to home-invasion robberies in Suffolk, Nassau and Queens, police said, which appear to be on the rise in recent months.
In Nassau County, at least 28 break-ins, including the 15 that follow the patterns, have occurred this year. Last year there were 16 such robberies, but with no apparent patterns.
So far this year in Suffolk, police said there have been 17 cases, but they were unable to provide figures for last year.
In some cases, robbers have injured their victims, police said. The punch to the face left Bible's jaw dislocated and her left wrist was broken in two places as she fought back.
Suffolk detectives believe Bible's June 8 case is linked to last month's home invasions in Dix Hills and Great River.
In Nassau, there have been two distinct break-in patterns since December with a third emerging in Westbury. Some are believed to be connected.
"These homeowners are asleep and they are awoken by masked individuals standing over them with guns," Nassau Det. Sgt. John Giambrone of the Robbery Squad said. "This is a bad situation."
In the first pattern of eight cases in Nassau, the culprits pried open doors or windows. In the second, burglars have crawled through open windows, garages and doors in seven break-ins.
In most, the robbers were masked, gloved men with guns.
The first pattern that emerged stopped without any arrests. A second set is still active with the last break-in occurring Oct. 9 in Levittown. In the second set, police arrested Eugene Elmore, 36, of Brooklyn, on July 1. He was charged with first-degree robbery in connection with a June 10 break-in in New Hyde Park. They also got a lead on a possible getaway car and released a sketch of a suspect in that pattern.
"This is a serious crime with the potential for things to go very wrong," Giambrone said. "We have to put an end to this pattern."
Nassau police and nearly a dozen village police departments formed a task force to combat the robberies.
Most home break-ins occur because residents don't take security seriously so they don't lock their doors or windows, said John Mueller, the La Valle, Wis.-based author of a book called "The Savvy Guide to Home Security."
"The number one entry point is the front door because the burglar simply walks up to the door and see if it's unlocked, and in a lot of cases it is," Mueller said. "It's like inviting a crook into your home."
Since the ordeal, Bible never leaves the windows open. The alarm is on at all times, especially when she or her daughter is home. She got a dog, but he barked at anything, constantly sending her into a panic. So she got rid of him.
On the night of the robbery, Bible fell asleep on the sofa, with the bathroom window open. She never thought robbers would find her home desirable.
"It's a middle-class neighborhood," she said. "We don't have a Mercedes in the driveway."
But two men took advantage of her open window anyway. They were in the house for 18 minutes - it felt like two hours, she said - before making off with some jewelry, a 100-pound jar of quarters and about $250 cash her daughter saved from birthdays.
Bible's West Babylon block is a far cry from the sprawling homes of Great River, adjacent to a golf course, where Suffolk's most recent home-invasion took place Sept. 28. But what the two homes had in common, Suffolk police said, were open windows and easy access to a parkway. Suffolk police believe those two, along with the Dix Hills case on Sept. 12, which also had an open window, are linked.
In each, occupants were awoken at gunpoint, Third Squad Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman said. In Great River, a couple was forced into a closet. In Dix Hills, occupants were tied up.
It was 3:03 a.m. when Bible's daughter heard her mother's screams. One of the men dragged the girl from her bedroom to sit on the sofa, where Bible was bleeding from her nose, after throwing some punches of her own.
"I wasn't even thinking robbery," said Bible, a petite single mother. "I thought they knew two women were alone in the house."
But the men demanded a safe and computers. "I was like, do I look like I have a safe?" Bible said. "If I had a laptop, I would have given it to them."
Bible never saw the men's faces, only their eyes. In a bizarre shift of mood, the man who punched her later comforted her when she threatened to throw up. Still holding his gun, he rubbed her back and whispered, "Lady, everything is going to be OK. We're not going to hurt you."
Posted Monday, October 17, 2005
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