Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Home invasions a menace to area

BY AMY CALDER Staff Writer

BY AMY CALDER

Staff Writer

There are likely few things more frightening than waking up in the dark to find an intruder in your home.

What do you do?

"Try not to do anything that would escalate it," Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey cautions. "It's a very dynamic situation."

Most people likely are confused and scared when they awaken in such a situation, but it is important to remember everything you possibly can about the intruder and to listen to what he says so that police are better able to identify him.

"It's such an affront to people when they're threatened in their home," Massey says. "You just don't expect that sort of personal violation in your life."

If you can, get to a safe place and call 911 as quickly as possible, Oakland police Captain Rick Stubbert advises.

"If you are confronted and told to produce drugs or money, give it to them," Stubbert says. "Whatever it takes to make them leave."

STATUS OF THREAT

What about such "home invasions?" Are they something new or just a different and newer name for "burglary"?

Are home invasions occurring because of the downturn in the economy? Because people are desperate for money and drugs?

Are the number of home invasions increasing?

Alfred Blumstein, a professor and director of the National Consortium on Violence Research at Carnegie Mellon University, says he does not know that statistics are kept specifically on home invasions, which are a form of robbery. The Consortium is a research, training and data resource specializing in violence research.

"Obviously, a burglary, a residential burglary, is a home invasion," Blumstein says. " When you say, 'home invasion,' you usually think of invading the home when someone is there as opposed to a burglary when the burglar is trying to do it when no one is there. In a narrow sense, I just don't know whether there's been an increase."

Home invasions that are unusual in some way, occur in the homes of middle or upper class people, or that result in murder tend to catch public attention, according to Blumstein.

Actually, home invasions are more common in poorer neighborhoods because most people who commit them are from those neighborhoods, but those cases do not get such public play in court, he said.

Last year, a tragedy in Connecticut in which a doctor's wife and two daughters were killed in their home made national headlines, putting home invasions in the spotlight. Dr. William Petit, of Cheshire, the only survivor in the triple murder case, has started a foundation to help others as a way to raise awareness of home invasions and remember his family.

While specific statistics on home invasions are not easy to find, Blumstein points to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, which does keep track of violent crimes such as robberies. Robberies are separated into categories of where they are committed, such as in convenience stores, at banks, on the streets and highways and in homes.

According to the FBI's Web site, "residential robberies" accounted for 14.3 percent of all robberies reported in the U.S. in 2006, with the total being 447,403. The 49,124 home robberies that year represents an increase of 8 percent from 2005.

Residential robberies have increased significantly in the last several years -- up 8.2 percent from 2000 to 2001; 13 percent from 2001 to 2002; 15.7 percent from 2002 to 2003; and 28.9 percent from 2003 to 2004.

Central Maine targeted

It seems there has been a spurt of home invasions in central Maine, with four having occurred within the last two months. Two of those were in Waterville, one in Manchester and another in Pittston.

In the Manchester invasion, which occurred March 8, a couple received minor injuries in a scuffle. On May 27, William Guerrette Jr. and his daughter, Nicole, 11, were victims of a brutal machete attack in their Pittston home. Leo R. Hylton, 18, of Augusta, has pleaded not guilty to the crime.

More recently, a woman on Silver Street in Waterville woke up June 30 to find an intruder in her apartment. She screamed out and he fled.

On July 22, a man reportedly entered a home on Western Avenue in Waterville and demanded prescription drugs of a woman who was alone there at 6 a.m.

She reported that the man was wearing a dark-colored, hooded sweatshirt and ski mask. He got away with drugs that were not narcotics, according to police.

A dog was used to try to pursue the man but lost the tracks in the Mayflower Hill Drive area.

"We've exhausted pretty much all the leads that we had to follow up on and unfortunately, they have not led us to focus on any suspect at this point in time," Massey said.

Anyone with information about the home invasion is asked to call police at 680-4700.

"This is the type of case that requires a lot of shoe leather to the pavement and the detectives have certainly been doing that diligently," Massey said.

He said it doesn't appear that the home invasion is related to the one that occurred three weeks earlier on June 30, when a woman on Silver Street awoke to find an intruder in her apartment. But he said he would not rule out a connection.

"She screamed out and he ran out of the apartment," Massey said. "We've not developed any suspects in that case; however there do not appear to be a lot of similarities."

In the apartment case, a small amount of cash was stolen. Massey said that the woman's neighbor had come home before that incident to find his apartment had been burglarized and someone had rummaged through it. He went out to scour the neighborhood to see if he could find anything suspicious. A small amount of cash and some liquor were taken from his apartment, Massey said.

He said police feel comfortable that there is no connection between the home invasion on Western Avenue and a credit union robbery that occurred in Madison the next day, but he also would not rule that out.

Massey said he does not think there has been a dramatic increase in home invasions in this area.

"We have certainly have had home invasions since I've been here for the last 33 years," he said. "When I first came on, they might have been called 'burglaries' and eventually the term became 'home invasions' seven, eight, 10 years ago."

Winslow police Chief Richard Grindall says home invasions are not typical in this area but there has been a noticeable increase in car burglaries in Winslow.

"We probably had 40 or 50 of them in the last two weeks," he said Friday. "We've had a slug of them. We've had some leads."

Fairfield police Officer Karen ODonnell said she thinks more people are reporting home invasions and burglaries and one reason is that in order to get a prescription drug renewed for a drug that has been stolen, residents must produce a police report of the theft.

"It's not necessarily a particular increase in the crime but it's being reported more and people are calling it a 'home invasion,'" she said.

No insurance like a neighbor

Stubbert, the captain from Oakland, said he can not recall a home invasion in that town where someone entered an occupied home. But burglaries in general appear to be on the rise.

"I, personally, in Oakland, have had a ton of residential burglaries, usually with a string at one time," he said. "Once in a while, I'll have an interrupted burglary when they (burglar) scoot out the back door."

Massey says people should take "reasonable precautions" to safeguard themselves and their property.

"There's no greater insurance than a good neighbor," he said. "Watch out for each other. Call the police. We have lost so many opportunities to catch people committing crimes because people are reluctant to call police. You can call anonymously."

Burglaries and home invasions are particularly difficult to solve if police have little to go on, he said.

"Jot down descriptions and plate numbers. We don't have a magic wand. This isn't TV. We just don't magically come up with a suspect."

But he acknowledged that when victimized, many people are in shock and not able to get accurate descriptions.

"There's very little to go on," he said. "It's nobody's fault; it's just the way it is."

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com