HOUSTON—Frank Lendvai escaped from communist Hungary and set up shop as a master jeweler in northwest Harris County way back in 1978. His small storefront, Legacy Jewelers, has been a fixture on FM 1960 for decades, so he takes pride in his neighborhood.
“This is my hometown,” he said. “I live here for forty years.”
Robbers and burglars have occasionally targeted his store, but he’s never had an experience like what happened to his family Tuesday night.
“So fast!” said his wife, Rosalba. “So fast! Probably a minute, maybe two minutes.”
It happened not at their store, but at their home. They’re so frightened, they asked us not to reveal their address.
A trio of masked gunmen apparently parked in an open field behind the Lendvai’s house. Moments after Mr. Lendvai returned from work, the assailants kicked in the door.
“They hit me in my head here,” he said, pointing to a gash on the side of his head. “And then they hit me on the top of my head.”
He stumbled outside and yelled for police. Meanwhile, his wife somehow escaped into the backyard, leapt over a fence, then started knocking on neighbors’ doors. That apparently frightened the intruders, because they quickly ran away without stealing a thing.
“I thought, ‘He’s going to kill him,’” said Mrs. Lendvai, remembering the moment a gunman struck her husband. She worried about her daughter, hiding in an upstairs bathroom. And she was so upset, she says she couldn’t even remember the phone number for 911 emergency calls.
Although law enforcement personnel said the crime appeared to be an aborted robbery, the gunman didn’t even snatch jewelry sitting in plain sight. They wore masks and covered almost their entire bodies, the Lendvais said.
Investigators had no description of the suspects or their getaway vehicle.
