Police warn residents of home robberies

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1999 | 10:01 a.m.

Metro Police are urging residents to be alert when they go home, and even while they are in their residences in the wake of home robberies in the past week.

Robbery detail Lt. John Alamshaw, who believes the same group of bandits robbed two families in the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley last week, said he is going to compare notes with Henderson Police investigators to see if a home invasion there on Sunday may have been carried out by the same thieves.

"There are things people can do," Alamshaw said. "If you're at home, keep the doors locked -- thieves go where there is the least resistance."

He said people should also keep sliding doors locked or, if they are open, put a restraining rod in the door's track so that they won't open enough to allow a robber to enter.

Alamshaw said Saturday sometime after 8 p.m., three men used a sliding door to gain access to a residence in the Painted Desert neighborhood in the vicinity of U.S. 95 and Ann Road.

"They tried a next door neighbor's slider just before then, but because of a pole on the track they could only open it several inches," Alamshaw said. "When they couldn't get in, they went next door."

He said the three men, who were armed with handguns, used duct tape to bind the husband and wife. They put a pillowcase over the man's head and a sheet over the woman's.

The suspects got away with cash, jewelry and other items.

Alamshaw said the same three probably committed the home invasion robbery of a Summerlin couple last Wednesday.

In that case, he said, the husband was followed home and into his garage by two armed men who then forced the man, his wife and their nephew to take them to a number of ATM machines before returning them to the residence, binding them with duct tape and robbing them.

Alamshaw said the two suspects are believed to have been in radio contact with a third person during the robbery.

He said the suspects in both robberies fit the same general description, black, about 6 feet tall, weighing 170 pounds, wearing gloves and armed with handguns.

Henderson Police said one of two armed men who entered a Henderson residence early Sunday was black, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds. There was no description of the second man.

Investigators said the robbery took place at a residence in the 2000 block of Eaglepath Circle, near Green Valley Parkway and Wigwam Avenue.

The man and wife at the residence were bound with duct tape and robbed of cash and personal property.