Family Held Up With Assault Weapons Near PATH Station In Harrison, N.J.
HARRISON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- It was a nightmare for a couple and their two children as they were held up with what they called assault rifles, in an up-and-coming neighborhood being built around a PATH Train station in Harrison, New Jersey.
As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, it came after another couple was robbed of jewelry last month in the same area.
The man who was robbed was so shaken up that he did not want to show his face on camera.
He and his wife, 4-year-old son and toddler were terrorized by five suspects as they pulled up to their home Sunday morning on Essex Street in Harrison.
"Four machine guns," said the man's father. "Each guy had a machine gun in his hand."
The robbery happened in a neighborhood being redeveloped near the PATH Train station.
"They put the machine guns to his head, to his face, and told him for them to give them all of his money," the victim's father said.
The victim had just $20 on him, so the assailants allegedly went after jewelry.
"They took his Rolex off of his hands. They pulled the chain off of his neck. He had a Cartier bracelet on, and he couldn't take it off because there's a screw in there and, they made him break it off his hands," the man's father said.
The man's father said two suspects then jumped in the back seat of the family's car, grabbed the keys, and tried to take off.
"My daughter-in-law started screaming that the babies was in the back seat," the man's father said.
The screaming stopped the suspects, who fled in a red sport-utility vehicle. The 4-year-old was not hurt.
"He was still sleeping -- that's what he told me -- but he was up. He saw everything," the victim's father said. "I made him think it was a dream."
Ten minutes after that robbery, an attendant was held up at a gas station around the corner by five suspects fitting the same descriptions. There are cameras at the gas station, but the owner said they weren't rolling.
"I think it's the same people, and I would like for these people to be stopped before they hurt someone," the victim's father said.
Police apparently have recovered the spotted the suspects' sport-utility vehicle in Elizabeth, and they are looking at surveillance video from another gas station – hoping it leads them to all the suspects.