Home Robberies Unnerve Neighborhood : Crime: Newport police warn Dover Shores residents that armed band is following older men home. Two households have been terrorized.
NEWPORT BEACH — In the wake of a recent residential robbery here, police on Tuesday urged residents of the upscale Dover Shores neighborhood to guard against a band of armed men who may be preying on elderly homeowners.
The warning was issued after detectives linked last week’s attack on an elderly couple in their Antigua Way home to another robbery that occurred in the same neighborhood less than two months ago.
“Initially, it looked like we had different suspects,†Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said. “We looked again and the similarities are strong enough that we want to alert citizens in the area.â€
Investigators theorize that at least four men may be staking out the quiet neighborhood of single-family homes, located on the west shore of the Newport Beach Back Bay, Gonis said.
The men, Gonis said, appear to be selecting elderly men who are spotted driving home alone. In both cases, the victims drove their cars into their garages and left the garage doors open.
The robbers then parked their cars up the street or around a corner, followed the victims into their houses through the open doorways, tied them up, threatened to kill them and rummaged through their houses.
The revelation that Dover Shores may be the target for a gang of robbers unsettled many residents.
“It’s really frightening to hear people can walk into your home and mentally as well as physically brutalize you,†said resident Rodger Griffith, who lamented that the robbers were not caught after the first attack.
The latest robbery occurred Feb. 28 when two armed men entered the home of 77-year-old Leonard Hall just after he parked his car in his garage, Gonis said. The men reportedly spoke to each other in a foreign language, Gonis said.
After grabbing Hall and binding his hands with duct tape and forcing him to lie on the kitchen floor, the two men began to search the house for valuables.
As they were rummaging through the house, Hall’s 75-year-old wife, Anna, walked in and was also bound up and ordered to lie on the floor, Gonis said.
The robbers fled with an undisclosed amount of jewelry, furs and cash, Gonis said.
Detectives said that robbery was similar to a Jan. 10 attack during which four men wearing masks and carrying handguns followed 66-year-old Charles Jeff to his house on Galaxy Drive, about two blocks from the Hall home.
“We are considering that they are concentrating on the area of Dover Shores,†Gonis said.
Jeff was returning from John Wayne Airport, Gonis said, and had just pulled his car into the garage. He left the garage door open while he took his suitcases out of the car and carried them into his bedroom.
Suddenly, four masked men barged into his bedroom, threw him on the bed and bound him up with tape, Gonis said.
They then ransacked his home, stealing furs, jewels and cash. The men in this attack also spoke in a foreign language.
Gonis said that investigators are hampered by the lack of witnesses and the fact that a description of only one robber was available. However, he said neither of the two attacks is connected to the home invasions in several North County cities. Those robberies were committed by suspected Asian gang members who target other Asians.
Gonis said that detectives speculate that the Dover Shores robbers have followed other residents home but changed their minds about robbing them after the intended victims either closed their garage doors or the robbers discovered there was somebody else home.
“It is a good possibility that they followed around more than one person,†Gonis said. “Maybe there’s somebody else out there that can give us a vehicle description.â€
Gonis said that residents should keep a close eye out for any car that may be cruising the neighborhood or parked with its engine running.
Randy Singer, 19, an Orange Coast College student, said that Dover Shores residents have already grown more wary about the goings-on in their neighborhood.
“I personally have been looking out the window more,†he said. “I don’t know whether to think they won’t come back in the area, or if, like some people say, they will come back.â€
Gonis said that anyone who does see a suspicious car or person should use caution. Anyone with information is urged to call the Newport Police Department at (714) 644-3782.
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