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2 New Pasco Home Invasions Reported

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By DAVID SOMMER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 28, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - NEW PORT RICHEY - No sooner had detectives made arrests in two recent home invasions than two additional cases put them back to work.

On Wednesday, a third man was jailed in connection with a May 14 home invasion on Turtle Lane in Hudson in which a gun was held to a 2-year-old's head and shots were fired into two television sets.

That arrest came days after detectives charged two men with a May 29 home invasion at Sandlewood Mobile Home Park in Zephyrhills in which two deaf seniors were bound and gagged.

Early Thursday, a Holiday couple reported they were bound and gagged with duct tape and robbed of a laptop computer and their rent money by a couple who apparently entered their home through an unlocked sliding door, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported.

Friday morning, a Moon Lake man said he was knocked unconscious and apparently robbed of his wallet by an intruder who came into his home armed with a shovel, according to a sheriff's office report.

Agency spokesman Kevin Doll said none of the home invasions appeared to be related. He said any perceived recent increase in such crimes is probably coincidental.

"We've seen an increase in home invasion cases across the Tampa Bay area," Doll said. "It is basically a burglary where somebody is home."

Doll cited the arrests in the Zephyrhills and Hudson home invasions as reason for residents to feel reassured of their safety.

"We have a pretty good track record with closing out these home invasion cases," the spokesman said.

In the pending Holiday case, Amy Schmidt and Juan Salcedo said they and their four children were asleep in their Wilson Drive home a little before 3 a.m. when a masked man, who the victims said they thought was black and in his early 20s, awoke them with a handgun pointed at Salcedo's head.

A white woman in her late teens used duct tape to bind and gag the couple before the man demanded and got money and the keys to a fire safe that did not contain any valuables, the sheriff's report said.

Deputies found balls of used duct tape in the house and in a neighbor's backyard; Salcedo's laptop computer was also missing, the report said.

In the second new home invasion, Robert Hanson said a large man entered his home on Purdue Street shortly after midnight Friday and demanded money before knocking him out with a blow to the head from a shovel, the sheriff's office reported.

Hanson had a gash on his face, was covered in blood and could not remember any details about the attacker, Deputy Peter Robbins reported.

A shovel was found in Hanson's driveway and was taken into evidence, as were photos of tire tracks near the edge of the property where tracking dogs lost the scent of the intruder, Robbins said.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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