Cops: Facebook Postings May Have Led To L.I. Home Invasion
DEER PARK, N.Y. (CBS 2) -- A brutal post-holiday heist rocked Suffolk County on Monday night.
Police are now investigating a crime where violent thieves appear to have gone after a family's Christmas gifts -- gifts they may have seen on Facebook, reports CBS 2's Derricke Dennis.
The frightening incident took place inside a home in Deer Park. A house still decorated for Christmas was targeted by two thieves in ski masks helping themselves to the gifts -- at gunpoint.
"[They] pushed me into my house. The next, one kicked me in the ribs. I went down. The next thing they hit me in the top of the head with the gun," said the victim, whose identity CBS 2 protected.
The man is a husband and father of three teens, nursing staples in his head.
He said while home alone Monday night intruders forced their way through the front door and beat him with the butt of a gun, sending him to the hospital bloody.
The family's Christmas gifts were swiped as if the robbers had a list.
"A Wii, an Xbox, jewelry, some games for the Wii," the victim said.
"We have nothing. They took everything. What else are they gonna take, a life," another family members said.
The family believes Facebook postings, including pictures by their teenagers, may have tipped the robbers off.
"Everybody said what they got for Christmas, what they got, what they didn't get, what they loved, what they hated," the victim said.
So much for season's greetings, the Facebook angle is being investigated by police. They said its one of many theories they're working on, while the family members wait in their home, nervous.
"I'm selling my house. I'm not staying here," a family member said.
Meanwhile, Suffolk County Police are checking the fingerprints left at the door and the teenagers' Facebook "friends" list.
"Could be somebody that you don't know or I don't know, that's friends with somebody else on Facebook," the victim said.
Old fashioned detective work will be used on a robbery that may have gone high tech.
The family said the robbers took about $2,000 worth of valuables. The father is expected to fully recover from his injuries.
