TEXAS CITY, Texas -- Three home invasions reported this week have police probing whether the same bandits are responsible for the burglaries, authorities said Wednesday. This story was brought to you thanks to khou.com’s partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.
In the Texas City, Bacliff and Dickinson cases, the bandits were black men who wore dark hooded shirts. However, the bandits in the Dickinson case didn’t arrive at the house armed, police said.
A woman, her infant daughter and niece were held at gunpoint by five masked men at 11:43 p.m. Monday in Texas City. The men ransacked the house in the 1700 block of Wayside Drive for valuables, but no injuries were reported.
Earlier that day, two men broke into a house at 10:23 a.m. in the 4400 block of Country Club Drive. The resident’s 28-year-old brother was home and fought with the burglars, who fled without taking anything, Dickinson detective John Lopez said.
The 28-year-old man was released from the hospital, Lopez said.
On Tuesday, three men, including one armed with a rifle or shotgun, broke into a 70-year-old woman’s house about 6:30 a.m. in the 5100 block of West Bay Shore in Bacliff, Capt. Barry Cook, a Galveston County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said.
The Bacliff burglary occurred as the woman returned from dropping her grandchild at the bus stop, Cook said.
"In this particular case, it was a targeted hit," Cook said. "They called her husband by name and asked for money in the safe."
The woman at first refused to cooperate, and one of the bandits struck her in the back of the head with the back of a long gun, Cook said.
"She stayed on the ground for a while and they locked her in the bathroom as they went through the home," Cook said.
The woman’s husband wasn’t home, and she refused medical treatment, Cook said.
In the Texas City case, the men wore ski masks, bluejeans and dark, hooded shirts. The burglars in the Bacliff case wore blue coveralls or workman’s suits. One of those men was of average height, stocky and in his 40s. The other two men were of average heights, thin and in their 20s, Cook said.
"Our detectives, Dickinson and Texas City are communicating, and so far they’ve not been able to determine a commonality," Cook said. "They were described differently as far as guns and clothing, but we don’t know if any of the cases are related, other than the type of crimes and the time period."
