Police Probe Home Invasions

Well-Dressed Suspects Carry Firearms

By Patricia Adams

Two thieves grabbed a woman outside her Woodhaven home last Friday, while she was sweeping her front stoop. The pair dragged the woman inside the house where they tied up her and her husband and robbed the couple at gunpoint.

Police described the robbers as two Hispanic men, one dark skinned, the other light. Both were well dressed, wearing dark blue suits. The men forced 56-year-old Emma Villavicenzia back in her home, where they used plastic zip ties to bind her and her husband Angel, 63.

The couple’s son, Marlon, told reporters that the attackers threatened his parents with coming back if they told anyone about the robbery. The Villavicenzias were not hurt in the home invasion.

Elsewhere, reports from the 106 precinct about a similar invasion in Howard Beach on Monday afternoon said that a pair of well dressed black men posing as police authorities tried to make forcible entry to the house.

Officers responded to the house to find that the two men had knocked on the door of the residence, claiming that they were police. According to the woman who answered her front door, the men, one of whom spoke with a heavy accent, were wearing shields around their necks. Both men were displaying firearms. When the woman became suspicious she told them she was going to call 911 to verify their identities. The thieves got spooked and grabbed the phone before running away from the house. The suspects jumped into a silver SUV, possibly a Honda, and took off, turning onto 156th Ave. in a westbound direction.

According to police reports, there has been four of the same type of incidents within the confines of the 106 and 102 precincts in the last month. In the reports for all of the incidents, the perpetrators were described as being well dressed. Police are actively investigating the possibility that there are more than two men involved in the push-ins and also looking into whether or not the crimes are part of a pattern.

Police remind all residents to exercise extreme caution and to make sure that all police personnel are properly identified. Authorities ask everyone to remember that all NYPD personnel are required to carry ID cards whether they are in uniform or not.

The Forum Newsgroup/photo by ROBERT STRIDIRON