Home Invasion and Family Kidnapping - Attempted Bank Robery

[Home Invasion]

Home Invasion - A Case Study to help you prepare:

As some here may already know my Brother and his family were the victims of a home invasion in October 2005. This experience and the lessons learned are the reason that this website is being established. I am going to give a brief overview of the situation and how this happened as sharing this story may allow those that read the story to better prepare themselves if you should be the next target.

Background:

This is an average Middle Class family and they may actually be in the lower middle class. They drive average and modest used cars and they do not own a great deal that would make them a target. Their house is a simple duplex and quite arguably the worst looking house on the block. If this family was attacked, any of us are likely to get attacked!

The Day and Night Before:

The neighbors indicated that they had seen a strange car driving around the neighborhood. One of the neighbors stopped the car and asked what they wanted and the people in the car were looking for someone by the name of "James" that they thought lived in the area. The neighbors indicated no James was there and the car left. As a side note, the neighborers had good descriptions of the people and car but a license plate number and a call to the police would have been a good idea.

The Setting:

It was a Sunday night and the 12-year old child slept on the couch and the Mother and Step father went to their room and went to bed. The doors were locked as were most of the windows. They also have a big dog in the form of a Husky - German Sheppard mix but the dog likes to sleep in the basement where it is cooler. The outside of the house was dark as like many of us they turn off the lights outside before going to bed.

The Attack:

At about 3AM two men entered the house from a kitchen window. The kitchen window had been unlocked but the window is an honest 7-feet off the ground so it had never been considered a likely threat. The individual that climbed through the window and opened the door from the inside to allow his partner in.

Once in the house they seemed to know the dog was in the basement as the closed and blocked the basement door with a chair. Next the found the 12-year old on the couch and took him outside with out waking the adults or getting the dog to bark and put him into the trunk of a waiting car where a third individual was as a driver.

The two males then proceeded up the stairs in the house and awoke the two adults in the bedroom with a gun to their faces. The two attackers separated the adults by the individual with the gun escorting out the step father at gun point. When outside, the gunman instructed the step father that he was to get into the trunk of the car as they walked towards the car. When the trunk was popped open the step father saw the stepson and jumped the gunman. A fight occurred and the gunman gained control of the pistol. The stepfather gained distance between the gunman and went to other houses to get police or help. The gunman pursued and after six shots were fired the step father was hit.

With the gunshots, the second male left the house leaving the mother alone. The mother tried to call 911 but all phone cords and phone lines had been cut. She tried to find the son and a cell phone but both of these had been taken. While she was searching for a phone the gunman who had shot the step father returned and demanded that she come or she will be killed as well as their son. She was forced at gunpoint into her own minivan and the two cars left.

The end results:

The above is pretty much out in the media but from there there is much that has not been shared. The Step father in this story was in the hospital for one day from a 22LR gunshot to the right abdomen. No organ damage occurred. The mother was either thrown from their minivan or jumped (this is still unclear months later), and the son was released unharmed at a Wal-Mart about 1.5-hrs from where they live.

After the home invasion the bank where the monther lived was entered using the mother's key as she was a teller at the bank. Followup investigations have shown that this was the reason for the home invasion in the first place.

Lessons Learned:

If a person wants in your home any open window or unlocked door is a potential threat.

A dog, if they sleep in a location where they can not see what is going on may assume that nothing unusual is happening when an attacker or attackers is in your house.

A security system is an exceptional way to get advance warning that someone is in your house but only if you have one, it protects all doors and windows, and you turn it on.

A house phone is not a sure way to get help as they are easily and quickly made inoperable. Cell phones if left out of reach will be picked up or destroyed by a home invader if they find them. Cell phones are best left charging next to you in your bedroom at night!

Having all of your guns secured in a safe or place away from your bedroom will make it impossible for you to grab a weapon in the few seconds you may have before the attacker is upon you.

All family members (Adults) need to be trained and experienced with firearms and know that if something happens where they can find the weapon and how to use it.

Kids need to be taught to yell if they are in trouble so their parents can help them (Tough to say without knowing more about what happened with him as I have not pressed that line of discussion nor do I think it is wise to do so at this time).

Your job can make you a target... Following is a coment from someone else that saw this info:


Posted by ComputerUser:
See: www.packing.org/community/home_defense/listview/3609/ (http://www.packing.org/community/home_defense/listview/3609/)

Get into the mind of a criminal and ask yourself what about your lifestyle, your property, or your job, might be seen as advantageous or beneficial to them. Here, the family could have been targeted as a way to get the bank key and ID. What about municipal employees who have passcards to get into courthouses without going thru security? Or pharmacists, gun store employees, lawyers, etc? All of these folks, and more, are higher-than-average-value targets, yet few view themselves as such. Maybe it is time that they did.

Conclusions:

In summary, there were so many things that went wrong in this situation that it makes my head hurt. The son was exposed, the dog didn't react, the family got zero advanced notice, the phones were quickly made unusable, the weapons were secured out of reach. When the wife had a chance to fight back she couldn't get help and she couldn't get a gun because she was not trained to do so. Had she got a gun the world would have been short one criminal but instead she is still in the hospital undergoing surgery to help fix some of the injuries that occurred over two weeks ago.

More from the Media

I have additional media reports that I will upload as time allows!

[Home Invasion]

reserved post

[Home Invasion]

This is an Article from the day after this all occured:

From Harrisburg Patriot News (http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1128504062193900.xml&coll=1&thispage=1)


THREE HOURS OF TERROR
Three people break into a home, shoot a man and abduct his wife and her son. Police want to know why.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
BY TOM BOWMAN
Of The Patriot-News
One of three people charged with kidnapping a mother and son and shooting the woman's husband told authorities that the family's Mount Joy home was selected randomly.

But police are not discounting the theory that the family was targeted because the woman had keys to the bank where she works.

David J. and Patricia E. Westervelt were awakened early Monday by two men, one armed with a revolver, standing in the second-floor bedroom of their home, police said.

The two men and a woman abducted Patricia Westervelt and her 12-year-old son, and the gunman shot David Westervelt as he attempted to run down an alley behind the couple's home.

The woman and her son were whisked away in separate vehicles. She eventually jumped from the rear of a minivan in Lower Swatara Twp., and the abductors released her son in Carlisle.

Police have charged Anthony Marcus Davis, 20, of the 200 block of South 15th Street, Harrisburg; Amber-Sunshine Catherine Griggs, 18, of the first block of Larch Drive, Shippensburg; and Raymond Benjamin Gaines, 20, of Atlantic City, N.J.

They were stopped Monday afternoon, about 10 hours after the home invasion, in a white Honda Civic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Lancaster County-Chester County line.

Griggs was driving the car 91 mph with Davis and Gaines as passengers, Trooper John Keifer said.

When police checked the license plate, they discovered the car had been reported stolen in Paxtang.

Griggs, Davis and Gaines were charged with aggravated assault; robbery; burglary; three counts of kidnapping; and criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary and kidnapping. In addition, Gaines was charged with attempted criminal homicide.

They were being held in the Chester County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Living a nightmare:

In court papers, police related the story of the home invasion and the arrests as follows:


Police arrived at the Westervelts' home, 115 S. Barbara St., Mount Joy, Lancaster County, at about 3:30 a.m. They found a neighbor helping David Westervelt at East Donegal and South Barbara streets. Westervelt had been shot once in the back, and the bullet had exited through his stomach.

Westervelt told police that he and his wife, Patricia, 39, had been sleeping in an upstairs bedroom and that Patricia Westervelt's son, Chad J. Coble, 12, had been sleeping downstairs on a couch.

Two men, one armed with a revolver, woke the couple, covered David Westervelt's head with a towel and forced him to walk downstairs and outside into an alley behind the house, where a white car was waiting. The men ordered Westervelt to climb into the trunk.

Westervelt said he saw Chad lying in the trunk and began wrestling with the gunman, whom police identified as Gaines. When Westervelt was unable to take control of the gun, he ran down the alley.

Gaines fired six shots at Westervelt, hitting him once in the back, according to court papers.

The wound was not life-threatening, police said.

Gaines and Davis took the keys to Patricia Westervelt's Kia minivan, grabbed several cell phones and some cash, and ordered Patricia Westervelt to get into the back seat of the van, police said.


Gaines drove the van, while Griggs and Davis took the car with Chad in the trunk, the court papers stated. The vehicles headed west on Route 230, then went onto Route 283 toward Harrisburg.

Patricia Westervelt jumped from the moving van on Route 283, police said.

A motorist found her, covered with blood, lying along the road about 6:30 a.m. Police said she was treated at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center yesterday for injuries suffered in her jump from the van and for a heart condition. A hospital spokeswoman said she was not listed as a patient.


The kidnappers dropped off Chad -- unharmed -- near a Wal-Mart in Carlisle about an hour before his mother was found.

About 9:30 a.m., Patricia Westervelt's minivan was found abandoned in Harrisburg. Mount Joy police impounded it and searched it for evidence, Mount Joy police Chief Ned R. Ensminger said.

Later, when state police stopped the stolen car on the turnpike, they said they found David Westervelt's cell phone in Griggs' pants pocket.

In the trunk of the stolen Honda, police said, they found a High Standard nine-shot revolver with six spent cartridges and three live rounds in the cylinder.

State police had heard radio bulletins about the Mount Joy home invasion, so they called police there.

Why the Westervelts?:

During an interview Monday night, Davis told police he had participated in the home invasion and that the Westervelts' home had been selected at random, police said.

But police said Patricia Westervelt is a teller at an M&T bank in Swatara Twp. and that the abductors might have wanted to rob the bank using her keys.

"We don't know at this point," Ensminger said. "I have my gut feelings on this, but I have nothing to prove anything. We're just going to have to go on what the one defendant told us, that it was just random. We're going to look into this deeper."

Ensminger praised area police for working together on the case and expressed his admiration for Chad.

"He's a good kid. He's a level-headed kid," Ensminger said. "He kept his cool about him while he was locked in that trunk and retained so much that went on inside that car just by listening. It was unbelievable. He gave us the female's name. He remembered the name that she was called and on and on."

Last night, Chad's father, Tim Coble of Elizabethtown, said his son would return to school today "and we'll see how things go."

Coble said he learned from police about 3:30 a.m. Monday that Chad had been abducted. About two hours later, Carlisle police called to tell Coble his son was safe.

"That was a long two hours, waiting to hear something," Coble said. He added that Chad was in good spirits when he arrived in Carlisle.

"He was happy they let him go," Coble said.

Staff writer Irvin Kittrell III contributed to this report. TOM BOWMAN: 255-8271 or tbowman@patriot-news.com

[Home Invasion]

This is the latest news report on this Home Invasion.
From The Patriot-News (http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1137147736221511.xml?pennnews&coll=1&thispage=1), Harrisburg PA.


4th suspect sought in Mount Joy kidnapping
Friday, January 13, 2006
BY TOM BOWMAN
Of The Patriot-News
Police are seeking a Carlisle-area woman who they say helped plan the kidnapping of a Mount Joy family and the burglary of a Lower Paxton Twp. bank.

Heather Middleton, 20, of Meals Mobile Home Park, South Middleton Twp., is suspected of having a role in the Oct. 4 kidnapping-burglary, Mount Joy police Chief Ned R. Ensminger confirmed yesterday.

The charges against her will not be made public until Middleton is arrested.

Middleton's mother, Linda Middleton, said police told her that the gun used to shoot a Mount Joy man during the kidnapping was among those stolen from her home one week earlier.

The .22 caliber revolver belonged to Linda Middleton's companion and was one of several guns stolen in a burglary at the home Middleton shares with her daughter.

"One of the cops said they had the one, but they don't know where the rest are," Linda Middleton said.

She suspects one of the men charged in the kidnapping, Raymond Benjamin Gaines 20, of Atlantic City, N.J., broke into her home and took the guns.

Police have not said whether Gaines stole the gun, which was found in the suspects' car when they were arrested along the turnpike just hours after the kidnapping-burglary.

Gaines was Heather Middleton's boyfriend, Ensminger said.

"He kind of played Heather," Linda Middleton said yesterday. "I'm really irritated at them, breaking in here, taking my guns."

Heather Middleton also is a friend of Amber-Sunshine Catherine Griggs, 19, of Larch Drive, Shippensburg, one of those charged, Linda Middletown said.

The other man charged in the kidnapping-burglary is Anthony Marcus Davis, 20, of the 200 block of South 15th Street, Harrisburg.

Linda Middleton said the last time she talked to her daughter was Thanksgiving.

Heather Middleton works as a home health aide, sometimes in the Carlisle area.

Ensminger said police believe Middleton fled to Florida shortly after police interviewed her about the kidnapping-robbery.

The charges against the three stem from an early morning break-in and kidnapping at the home of Patricia and David Westervelt, 115 S. Barbara St.

The intruders awakened the couple and Patricia's son, Chad Coble, 12.

Ensminger said police believe the three targeted the Westervelts because Patricia Westervelt is an employee of the M&T Bank they planned to burglarize.

"They thought she was much more important than she was at the bank," Ensminger said.

"She was just a line teller, but they thought she had a key to the vault and that they were going to knock off everything."

After the intruders broke into the Westervelts' home, they held the couple at gunpoint and placed Coble in their car trunk.

David Westervelt tried to wrestle the gun away from one of the male intruders. When he failed to get control of the gun, he ran down an alley.

Police charged Gaines with firing six shots at David Westervelt, hitting him once in the back.

The intruders then kidnapped Patricia Westervelt, who jumped from their moving vehicle in Lower Swatara Twp., and dropped off Coble unharmed near the Carlisle Wal-Mart.

Police said the kidnappers then headed for the M&T Bank and used Westervelt's key to open the front door.

That set off a bank alarm, sending the burglars fleeing without getting any money.

In Lancaster County, each of the three is charged with aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, three counts of kidnapping, criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary and kidnapping.

Gaines is also charged with attempted criminal homicide.

In Dauphin County, Griggs, Davis and Gaines are charged with conspiring to burglarize the M&T Bank at 4206 Union Deposit Road, Lower Paxton Twp.

Griggs and Davis are in Lancaster County Prison and Gaines is in Chester County Prison awaiting a March trial in Lancaster County.

One week ago, Griggs waived her Dauphin County preliminary hearing.

[Quarterbore]

Follow-Up:

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/206666

Man gets 24-50 years in kidnap-heist case
By BRETT LOVELACE, Staff
Intelligencer Journal

Published: Jul 11, 2007 2:22 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Patricia Westervelt jumped out of a speeding van on Route 283 to get away from the trio who kidnapped her at gunpoint in the middle of the night from her Mount Joy home.

The 41-year-old mother and former bank teller has spent the 22 months since her Oct. 3, 2005, abduction trying to recover from brain damage, hearing loss, problems walking and emotional pain suffered during the botched bank-heist plan that also left her son traumatized and her husband wounded from a gunshot.

Westervelt on Tuesday again faced one of the men involved in the plot.

Raymond Benjamin Gaines, 22, was sentenced to 24 to 50 years in state prison. He also must pay $506,772 to the Westerveltes for lost wages, medical bills and counseling.

Gaines earlier pleaded guilty to attempted homicide, burglary, robbery, criminal conspiracy, attempted kidnapping and two counts of kidnapping.

Westervelt struggled through tears for several minutes as she told Judge David L. Ashworth how difficult her life has been since being abducted.

"What (Gaines) did was unfathomable," Westervelt said. "The impact this has had on my family is beyond words. …

"I'm on medications and will require physical therapy for the rest of my life."

Gaines, the father of a 1-year-old girl, responded with an emotional plea to Westervelt for forgiveness.

"Each day I look in the mirror of my jail cell and see a worm that crawls in the dusty earth," Gaines said. "I took the easy way out to get some money. That's not the way a man takes care of his family."

"I'm ashamed of myself as a man because this is not what I was raised to be. My father taught me to stand up and take responsibility for my actions. I wish there was some way to change what I did. I'm sorry."

About 10 of Gaines' family members attended the hearing, including his parents.

Defense attorney David L. Blanck told Ashworth a series of poor decisions led Gaines into crime.

While Gaines was serving in the U.S. Army, stationed in Virginia, his pregnant girlfriend attempted suicide in Shippensburg. Gaines went absent without leave, struggled to secure an income and started using drugs.

Gaines thought he could make some quick money from the bank heist.

"The plan sounded workable and Raymond was desperate," Blanck said. "There is a sweet side to him."

The judge was unmoved.

"You are every law-abidding citizen's worst nightmare," Ashworth said. "You are indeed a very serious danger to the community."

After the hearing, two sheriffs deputies led Gaines out of the courtroom. He turned before reaching the exit and thanked his relatives for coming, saying he loved them.

Westervelt then spoke, telling Gaines, "You should die."

"What did you say?" Gaines responded, staring at Westervelt.

The exchange ended as the deputies escorted Gaines out of the courtroom.

Westervelt's husband, David J. Westervelt, 35, and her son, Chad Coble, 14, attended the hearing.

The three were forced from their home at 115 S. Barbara St. by Gaines, Amber-Sunshine Griggs, 20, and Anthony Marcus Davis, 22. Griggs and Davis are awaiting trial.

According to court documents, the three thought Patricia Westervelt had a key to the M&T Bank branch in Lower Paxton Township where she worked, and wanted her to help them take money from the vault. They put her into her own minivan and stuffed Chad in the trunk of a car.

David Westervelt broke away from the kidnappers when they tried to put him in the trunk with his stepson. Gaines shot him in the back with a .22-caliber handgun as he tried to run.

Patricia Westervelt escaped by jumping from the minivan as it traveled an estimated 120 mph along Route 283 in Dauphin County.

She was found injured along the highway in Lower Swatara Township by a passing motorist, about four hours after being abducted.

Chad was locked in the car trunk for three hours. He was released shaken but unhurt near a Wal-Mart in Carlisle.

Despite Patricia Westervelt's escape, the three attempted to burglarize the bank. However, they set off the bank alarm after unlocking the front door and fled without any money.

Later that day, a state police trooper stopped the three for speeding on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Chester County.

The three were detained after the trooper determined their Honda Civic was stolen. A loaded revolver was found in the trunk.

Mount Joy police had alerted authorities across Pennsylvania about the kidnapping, sparking a massive manhunt.

Troopers later determined the three matched the description of the kidnappers and turned them over to Mount Joy police.

[Quarterbore]

Reference: http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1204260985325210.xml&coll=1

MOUNT JOY
Man gets 201/2 to 40 years for kidnap, holdup scheme
Friday, February 29, 2008
BY REGGIE SHEFFIELD
Of The Patriot-News
The second of three people was sentenced to state prison Thursday for his role in an October 2005 kidnapping and bank robbery scheme in which a Mount Joy woman was injured and her husband was shot.

Anthony Marcus Davis, 22, of the 200 block of South 15th Street, Harrisburg, was ordered to serve 201/2 to 40 years in state prison, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said. Davis pleaded guilty in October for his role in the plot to abduct a Lower Swatara Twp. bank employee and force her to open the vault.

Lancaster County authorities charged Davis; Raymond Gaines, 22, of Atlantic City, N.J.; and Amber-Sunshine Catherine Griggs, 21, of Larch Drive, Shippensburg, with aggravated assault, robbery, burglary and kidnapping in connection with the Oct. 3, 2005, scheme.

Gaines was also charged with attempted murder and was given a 24- to 50-year prison sentence last year.

Griggs is awaiting trial.

Davis and Gaines kidnapped David and Patricia Westervelt and their 12-year-old son from their South Barbara Street home with the intent of forcing Patricia Westervelt to open the safe at the Union Deposit Road branch of M&T Bank, where she was an employee.

The scheme went awry when David Westervelt tried to escape while being led out of the house and was shot in the back.

Patricia Westervelt, 42, jumped from the kidnappers' van while they were driving through Lower Swatara Twp.

A passing motorist found her, badly injured, beside the road. She told Lancaster Common Pleas Judge David Ashworth that she suffered permanent head injuries during her leap.

Chad Coble, the couple's son, was left unharmed near the Carlisle Wal-Mart.

The would-be robbers used Westervelt's keys to open the bank branch, but set off the alarm and fled without any money, according to court documents.

REGGIE SHEFFIELD: 255-8170 or rsheffield@patriot-news.com

[Quarterbore]

Remorseless kidnapper gets 20-plus years in jail
Intelligencer Journal
Published: Feb 28, 2008
01:25 EST
Lancaster
REF: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/217338

A 22-year-old man involved in the "heinous" 2005 kidnapping of a Mount Joy family laughed at his victims Wednesday before he was removed from a Lancaster County courtroom and sentenced to at least 20½ years in state prison.

Anthony Marcus Davis, one of three co-conspirators in the kidnapping, also mocked Lancaster County Judge David Ashworth and first assistant District Attorney Christopher Larsen before asking to be taken out of his own sentencing.

Ashworth then relayed the 20½- to 41-year prison sentence to defense attorney Cory Miller as deputy sheriffs walked Davis to a holding cell.

Davis, of Harrisburg, pleaded guilty in October to helping Raymond Gaines and Amber Griggs kidnap David and Patricia Westervelt and their 12-year-old son, Chad Coble.

David Westervelt was able to escape as he was being forced into a car but was shot in the back as he fled.

Gaines was charged with attempted murder for shooting Westervelt and sentenced last year to 24 to 50 years in state prison. Griggs' case is pending.

Patricia Westervelt escaped by jumping out of a speeding minivan on a busy highway near Harrisburg.

David and Patricia Westervelt were seriously hurt and still undergo treatment for their injuries.

The kidnappers released Coble, unharmed, in Carlisle.

Investigators have said the kidnapping scheme involved a plot to obtain the key to the Dauphin County bank where Mrs. Westervelt worked.

After declining to speak at Ashworth's request, Davis made several outbursts Wednesday as David and Patricia Westervelt addressed the court.

Initially, Davis rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows as Patricia Westervelt read from a prepared statement.

In the early morning of Oct. 3, 2005, Westervelt said, "the scene out of a horror movie happened."

She described the break-in and ensuing kidnapping.

"I remember thinking my life has changed forever and is going to end," Westervelt said.

After jumping from the van, Westervelt said, she remembered the trucker helping her on the shoulder of Route 283 near Harrisburg.

She sustained permanent brain damage in the jump from the van.

"I don't know what justice would be in this case," she told Ashworth.

She suggested death as an appropriate punishment, causing Davis to chuckle.

Westervelt repeated herself.

"I heard you," Davis snapped back.

After the Westervelts addressed the court, Larsen reprimanded Davis for his "disinterest" in the victims' well-being.

"He thinks this is a joke," Larsen said. "When he walks out of here today, he will not think it's a joke."

Davis then blew a kiss to Larsen, who asked the gesture be put on record.

Later, Davis interrupted Ashworth as the judge read a list of his prior arrests.

"I know what I did. Can you just sentence me?" Davis said. "I don't want to be here. Take me out."

Ashworth twice asked Davis, "Do you want to be present?"

Davis told the judge, "Adios. I don't want to look at you no more."

Davis and Gaines entered the Westervelt home in the 100 block of South Barbara Street through an unlocked kitchen window, police said.

Coble, who was sleeping on a first-floor couch, was awakened by one of the men and ordered outside at gunpoint. He was put into the trunk of a stolen car and driven away.

Next, a gunman walked David Westervelt out of the home. He got away and was shot as he ran down an alley.

Then, Patricia Westervelt said, "they came in for me."

Wearing a sleeping gown, she was ordered into her own minivan and driven off.

"This crime is every law-abiding person's nightmare," Ashworth said, calling the incident "cold, calculated and deliberate."

"Other than killing someone, I can think of fewer crimes more heinous and despicable," the judge said.

E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com