Rash of home invasions has police on alert
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 By NIKI DOYLETimes Staff Writer [email protected]
Lock doors, be wary of strangers, officers tell public

A woman knocks on a door and the homeowner lets her in. Seconds later, she's holding a knife to his chest.

Another man answers at knock at his door, and before he can ask what his visitors need, he's clocked in the head with a pistol.

Both of these home invasions happened within a 24-hour period, perking up the ears of Huntsville police officers and alarming neighbors. Police spokesman Mark Roberts said the department has reported 12 home invasions in the past two months.

While home invasions are often linked to some other type of crime - Roberts said police believe more than half of those may be related to drugs, gambling or other illegal activity - they can be dangerous if you're caught in that situation.

"You have a bigger chance of being robbed on the street than in your home," Roberts said, "but we think this is a preventable crime. It probably doesn't happen a lot to purely innocent victims, but one of these is too many."

In two of the 12 cases, the homeowners knew the robber, Roberts said. In two more cases, police later discovered that drugs were the driving factor.

While the proximity of several cases made officers take notice, home invasions represent a little less than 15 percent of the total number of robberies during that same two-month time period. Police reported 71 robberies that didn't involve an invasion.

Roberts said you can take several simple steps to reduce the chance of someone charging into your home. Most of them are simple, from making sure your doors are locked to keeping your front door and yard well-lit, but some are more subtle suggestions.

Police recommend never answering your door if you don't know who's knocking. Someone claiming you have a package? Check his or her uniform and identification through a peep hole or side window. Someone asking for directions? Be wary - police say this is a common ruse that burglars use to see if anyone's home, and can also be a technique for home invaders.

It's also wise to keep your money in a bank, and avoid having large amounts of cash at home. One man became the victim of a home invasion because an acquaintance knew he had a lot of cash in the house, Roberts said.

"We don't want to alarm the public, but we do want people to be aware of these types of crimes," he said. "We want them to know how to protect themselves and their families."

If someone does break into your home, stay calm, Roberts said. Cooperate with the robbers - no amount of money or belongings are worth getting hurt - and take note of their clothing, voices and other distinguishing characteristics.
http://www.al.com/crime/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/123305134696040.xml&coll=1

It's AL, cops assume you have firearms unless told otherwise.