HAMMOND | A family of four, including two young girls, were bound with duct tape and forced into a rear bedroom of their home during an armed robbery and home invasion Thursday night.
At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, a 10-year-old girl answered a knock at the door of her home in the 7800 block of Catalpa Avenue and found two men standing there and a red Chevrolet TrailBlazer in the driveway, said Hammond police Lt. Richard Hoyda.
One of the men asked if anyone was home. When the girl's 41-year-old mother came to the door, the men forced their way into the home. Hoyda said one of the men was armed with a handgun.
The pair forced the mother and daughter as well as a 52-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl in the home into a rear bedroom, Hoyda said, where the pair bound the family's hands, feet and mouths with duct tape.
The offenders then closed the blinds and turned off the lights at the front of the home while they removed a Sony MP3 player, jewelry, cash and cellphones from the home. Hoyda said one of the men was on the phone as the robbery occurred.
Before leaving the home, one of the offenders asked one of the family members for a phone number, Hoyda said, saying they would call someone and tell them to come and cut them free.
No one was injured in the incident, Hoyda said.
One of the offenders was described as a 30- to 35-year-old black man with dreadlocks, 6 feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, black Air Jordan shoes and black gloves.
The offender with the gun was described as a 30-year-old black man with a goatee, 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, black gloves and a black mask. Hoyda said the man also had an all black handgun.
Police are asking anyone with information related to the crime to contact the Hammond Police Department's Detective Bureau at (219) 852-2906.
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