Police targeting home invasions

Spokane police Chief Roger Bragdon has called for a “maximum response” by all city officers to help solve two recent home-invasion robberies on Spokane’s South Hill and similar reports from Coeur d’Alene.

In three of four reports, the thieves kicked open the front door of an occupied home, rushed to the bedroom and told the residents to remain under their covers as they grabbed any valuables they could carry.

“The suspects in these crimes are so brazen that I do fear that they are going to escalate. I do fear that they are going to be so confident in what they are doing that they are going to do something worse,” Bragdon said. “This is our first priority, and number two is way down the list.”

Drug detectives are offering money to informants for tips. Records clerks have been asked to look for similar burglaries in which doors had been kicked in, Bragdon said. Police officials have even developed a profile of the victims in an effort to predict where the thieves will hit next.

“It seems to be totally random. That’s another scary feature of this particular crime series,” Bragdon said. “We can’t find why they picked these particular victims.”

•The first incident occurred March 31 in Coeur d’Alene.

In that case, a 37-year-old mother, who lives in the 400 block of West Fuller Court, said she was sleeping at 1:28 a.m. when a man forced his way through her front door. A man came in and yelled at the woman and her 12-year-old daughter and demanded money, Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood said.

The mother heard one man talking to another man inside the home, and the 12-year-old girl said she saw a gun in one of the men’s hands. One man took a purse from the side of the mother’s bed, and the two men left in a car.

“Our detective has been working with (Spokane police officials) hoping to glean information from their cases that will assist with ours,” Wood said.

•The first Spokane case occurred April 19 at a residence near Hart Field on the South Hill. The victim said he heard a crash and went to investigate.

Two men forced their way into his home, took jewelry and a few dollars and left in a vehicle, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a news release.

•On April 21, Coeur d’Alene police responded to the 400 block of Dollar Street.

A 36-year-old woman told officers that she was sleeping at 3:05 a.m. when she heard someone pounding on her front door. Her dog started barking, the woman yelled, “Hey!” and the pounding stopped. The door frame was cracked, and it appeared to have been kicked, Wood said in a press release.

•On Sunday, a woman in an apartment on West Seventh Avenue in Spokane said two men kicked in her door at 2:25 a.m. and rushed into her bedroom.

Bragdon said the woman was on the telephone with 911 when the men came into her bedroom. She said they told her to get back under her covers and not look at them.

“She put the phone down, and you could hear them yelling at her” on the 911 tape, Bragdon said.

A state Department of Corrections parole officer listened to the tape but didn’t recognize the voices, Deputy Chief Al Odenthal said.

In one of the robberies, the thieves made away with just $8.50 in cash, Bragdon said.

“That’s the other puzzle. Obviously, these aren’t mansions they are breaking into,” Bragdon said. “The jewelry they are stealing is worth very, very little. It’s like they don’t care.”

Secret Witness has offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the culprits.

Residents can help by calling 911 for anything that appears to be suspicious, Bragdon said.

“I don’t recommend that people panic. Keep a phone by your bed, be alert and be responsive to suspicious noises and circumstances,” he said. “We would rather respond and find it was a small animal than not respond and find out that you were victim of a home-invasion robbery. Err on the side of calling the police.”

Home-invasion robberies are common, yet almost never reported, because they mostly involve drug users or gang members robbing drug dealers of their narcotics and money, Bragdon said. But random home-invasion robberies with “innocent” victims almost never happen.

“That’s what makes this crime series so potentially dangerous is that the suspects don’t seem to care someone is home,” he said.