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Two home invasions in one nightPosted on: 2008-09-11
BY BILL MASON: bill.mason@newsday.com
10:04 PM EDT, September 8, 2008
While they slept, residents in two Suffolk homes were burglarized Monday morning by three gunmen who confronted the families and robbed them of cash and valuables, police said.
Detectives are trying to determine whether the same three men are responsible for the two home invasions, one in Lindenhurst and one in Islip, and whether they might be connected to two similar occupied-house burglaries in Melville that took place in the past two weeks.
'We're looking into that possibility,' said Det. Sgt. Anthony Lavista of the Second Squad. 'It's not definite one way or the other.'
Three men entered a home on St. Marks Lane in Islip about 3:20 a.m. Monday, where a family of four slept. A 58-year-old grandfather woke to find two strangers, one armed with a handgun, standing over his bed, police said.
The man, his 53-year-old wife, their 26-year-old son and his 2-year-old son were then gathered together and bound, police said. One of the men hit the wife during the burglary, police said, and she sustained minor injuries. After gathering cash, jewelry and a laptop computer, the burglars fled, police said.
Less than two hours later, a man and his wife were asleep in their home on West Lido Promenade in Lindenhurst, about 12 miles away. Three armed men entered through a rear entrance about 5 a.m., police said. The couple were also bound, but the woman was able to free herself and call for help, police said. But by then, the robbers had fled with valuables.
Last Thursday, a father was asleep upstairs in his house on Round Tree Drive when he was awakened by a noise shortly after 3 a.m., police said. As with the other robberies, when he went to investigate, he was confronted by three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, police said. The man, his wife and their daughters, aged 4 and 6, were forced into one room where the two adults were tied up, police said. The invaders tried unsuccessfully to remove a flat-screen TV before fleeing the house with about $100 in cash, police said.
The week before, another Melville family was robbed during the night. Three men entered a home on Wilmington Drive, a few blocks from Round Tree Drive, on Aug. 26 and threatened a man and a woman with a handgun before fleeing with about $1,500 cash and a television, police said.
Suffolk police asked that anyone with information about any of these burglaries call Crime Stoppers at 800- 220-TIPS.
