ANCHORAGE – It was an alarming awakening for six residents of a South Anchorage home who found a band of masked men robbing their house early Monday morning.
“I was confused, I mean it was so late and we don’t know these people,” resident Nicole said. “They’re in our homes with guns on us. We’re mad. We’re scared. We’re helpless.”
It started when a woman, who only wants to be call Nicole, says she returned to her Brandon Street home around midnight.
There, she and her brother were met by masked men with guns. They forced Nicole’s brother to the ground and led Nicole inside. Nicole said her father tried to lock the assailants out, but found three had already made it inside.
“He has a ski mask with two holes, and a mouth,” Nicole said. “He was tall, skinny, black, no hair.”
Nicole says six robbers ransacked her house, taking iPhones, PlayStations, electronics and other small valuables.
While thieves looted Nicole’s home, some of the criminals demanded that Nicole’s family lay face-first on the ground.
“My brother, who is 13, is laying on the ground,” Nicole said. “My father is laying on the ground.”
Nicole’s mother, at this time a hero in her own right, did not comply.
“She’s so strong like that,” Nicole said. “She told a guy with a gun pointed at her to ‘eff off’ because she had to get her granddaughter. I’m proud of my mom. She was probably the reason why they left.”
This makes two armed home invasions in what is considered one of Anchorage’s safest neighborhoods this month.
However, police are saying the home invasion on March 8 was a possible drug-related crime.
“We want the public to know that these aren’t just random acts,” said Sgt. Mike Couturier with APD’s detective robbery and assault unit. “All indications are that they had a purpose going there.”
Couturier says these home invasions should not alarm the general public because the two robbed homes were targeted.
But with no arrests and no named subjects, Nicole and her family are left to fret.
“They think it was targeted. Someone picked this house for a reason and they think its drug related and that’s completely scary because they knew us and I don’t know them,” Nicole said.
Stolen goods aside, Nicole says they took one thing that money can’t buy.
In time, she’s she hopes to find renewed peace of mind.