INVASION ROBBERIES PROBED

Four Cases In Two Weeks Have Communities On Edge

Snohomish County sheriff's detectives suspect two home-invasion robberies
in the Lynnwood and Bothell areas Thursday are drug-related and the work of
the same people.

In both cases, the intruders carried firearms and were looking for drugs
and money, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.

Investigators also are trying to determine whether those two robberies were
connected to two other home invasions within the last week, one in Island
County and the other in Snohomish County.

The first robbery occurred about 3:30 a.m. in the 3600 block of 199th
Street SE in the Bothell area. A 32-year-old man told deputies he was
asleep in bed when he was hit on the back of the head and tied up with duct
tape. He reported hearing the voices of two intruders, although he saw only
one of them, Jorgensen said. The robbers cut his phone line, entered
through an open front window and said they were looking for the man's
former roommate, she said.

The robbers took cash, the man's driver's license, a debit card and a rifle.

The victim was able to free himself about 90 minutes after the robbery. He
ran to a neighbor's house and called for help.

He described one robber as a black male, 15 to 25 years old, with a thin
build, a goatee, wearing a white jacket, long pants and gloves.

The second robbery occurred about 5:40 a.m. in the 3000 block of 204th
Street SW in the Lynnwood area, Jorgensen said. Three men entered the home
through an unlocked door. They ordered the five occupants to lie face-down
in the hallway while the robbers ransacked the home, she said. They cut the
phone lines, then moved the victims to a bedroom, where they were ordered
to lie face-down on a bed. The robbers then fled with an undisclosed amount
of money and a few marijuana plants, Jorgensen said.

Home invasion robberies are common among people involved with illegal
drugs, although many go unreported, said Pat Slack, director of the
Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force.

"It's one of the hazards of doing business when you're involved in the
manufacture and sale of narcotics," he said. "Some of these people look at
it as the cost of doing business. That's one of the biggest threats to
people involved in illegal narcotics -- their competitors. They're easy
targets.

"They're more afraid of the robbers than the cops. Nobody wants to go to
jail, but they'd rather go to jail than get shot by the bad guys, even if
they're one of the bad guys," Slack said.

On Wednesday, a masked robber entered a Snohomish home about 3:20 a.m.,
awakened the resident, struck him on the head with a tire iron, robbed him
and fled.

And on Sunday, at least four armed robbers raided a birthday party near Oak
Harbor attended by more than a dozen people 18 to 24 years old. The robbers
kicked one man in the face, held all of them at gunpoint, robbed them and
fired a warning shot into the ground. They then shut all of the partygoers
into a shed before fleeing with cash, credit cards, small valuables and
documents. The robbers in that case also were seeking drugs and money,
police said.