Arkansas Armed Robbers Use No-Knock FBI Warrant To Rob House
(via Freep)
4 gunmen bust doors, yell FBI, loot home
Two men kicked in the front door, splintering it near the bolt-lock. Two more kicked in a side door. All four had guns. It was 3 a.m. FBI! FBI! the men shouted, one pulling what looked like a badge out of his shirt before stuffing it back in. Wheres your money?
Lloyd McCuien lay facedown on the living-room floor of his Pulaski County house off Arkansas 365 outside Maumelle and within sight of Interstate 40 surrounded by seven family members. It took me about 10 or 20 seconds to get my mind woken up, McCuien, 42, said, to realize that the real FBI didnt wear a red bandanna over their face and a white T-shirt. These werent the FBI. They were self-employed. And this was a robbery, one the Pulaski County sheriffs office is investigating.
The gunmen ransacked the house and searched room to room to gather all the occupants in one place, pulling some out of bed at gunpoint. One of the men was heavyset, McCuien said. The other three were skinny. They sounded young, Mc-Cuien said. A bear of a man he looks uncannily like The Green Mile actor Michael Clarke Duncan McCuien tried to steal an occasional peek to see if he could see a face. Look down, one gunman said. A few minutes later, he tried again. I said look down! the gunman said, following his remark with a smack on the back of Mc-Cuiens head with a handgun. McCuien said he heard someone say pull out the duct tape. Either they couldnt get the tape to work or something because they decided not to tie us up, he said.
About then, a neighbor returned home, McCuien said, and the gunmen organized to the point of choreography until then started bickering. One of them said it was time to go, time to go, McCuien said. But another one said no, he wasnt leaving without taking something. The gunmen grabbed an Xbox video-game console, baseball caps and clothes, a .45-caliber handgun and McCuiens wallet. They took my TV off the wall like they put it there, he said. Just real quick, smooth and easy.
A vehicle with a hatchback pulled up outside, and the men left in it. According to a sheriffs office report, the robbers left behind the duct tape, a black leather bag and a glove. They took my nephews clothes, man, McCuien said. The TV I understand. Plasma, 42-inch. But his clothes? What are they going to do with those? Wear them? McCuien said he believes his house was targeted specifically, though he doesnt know the reason. I dont know exactly why or by who, but somebody who knows somebody or somebody whos somebodys cousin thought we had something in here they wanted, he said. This kind of thing doesnt really happen around here.
Sheriff s office spokesman John Rehrauer concurred, saying violent acts are unusual in that area. The sheriffs office does not keep track of home-invasion robberies, Rehrauer said, but crime statistics kept by the agency showed 15 robberies of people in Pulaski County in 2008 through June, a decrease of seven from the same period a year earlier.
FBI special agent Steve Frazier, spokesman for the agencys Little Rock field office, said he had not been notified of any possible impersonations of bureau personnel.
After the gunmen left, McCuien said, he called 911. The respondents were real law enforcement this time uniforms, patrol cars, everything, he said. Deputies had made no arrests by late Thursday. McCuien said his house on Ingram Road was recently remodeled, but he didnt suspect any of the white and Hispanic crew that worked on it.
No, man, these were all brothers who came up in here this morning, he said. Sorry to say. And, he said, he tends not to keep large amounts of cash in his house. Where would I get it? he asked. Im out of work right now, just like almost everybody else, it seems. I have no idea why somebody thought I was rich.
McCuien said he grew up in the same neighborhood of calm and winding, sidewalkless roads, old and moldering mobile homes, and clean, newer brick houses on large lots. He lived in Phoenix for 11 years, he said, owning a dumptruck firm. He moved back about six years ago, he said, after his father had a stroke. He stayed after a sister got sick, and when she died, he moved into her house.
This is the first Ive heard of something like this happening around here, he said. I wasnt really thinking Id make history in this neighborhood.
Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-08-08 |