INVADERS MAY HAVE PICKED WRONG HOME

Criminals Often Get It Wrong

Peel Regional Police believe a group of robbers who "tortured" a family for
nearly an hour in their Mississauga home yesterday may have broken into the
wrong house.

Police continue to hunt for four men and a woman, who all donned ski masks
and were armed with handguns when they broke into the posh Erindale
Woodlands home just after midnight Thursday.

Police said the invaders tied up the parents and their two children inside
a bedroom as they demanded drugs and money.

The only problem, according to Det. Sgt. Bruce Chapman of Peel's Central
Robbery Bureau, was that there were no drugs or large amounts of cash in
the home.

"They went looking for something that just wasn't there," he said, adding
the family didn't know the assailants. "There's no indication this home was
a (marijuana) grow house or that there were any kind of drugs inside. Did
they hit the wrong house? That's a good possibility."

During the invasion, one of the attackers poured boiling water over the
53-year-old father of the home, Chapman said, leaving the man with several
blisters.

The thugs also fired off a gunshot into the ceiling before threatening to
kidnap the 20-year-old daughter, police said.

The group eventually made off with some jewellery and cash.

Other than to the husband, there were no physical injuries to other family
members, including the daughter, her 26-year-old brother and the
52-year-old wife and mother.

But, said Chapman, the emotional trauma suffered during this ordeal will
likely last a lifetime.

"They were tortured," he said. "When a gunshot gets fired right in front of
you and you get tied up...who knows if they could ever recover from
something like that?"

While Chapman fell short of saying mistaken identity in home invasions is a
common occurrence, he admitted it does happen from time to time.

"Groups get tipped off that there are lots of drugs in a home, and it turns
out to be the wrong address," he said.

Three of the men are black and in their 20s, and another man is white and
also in his 20s.

There is no description on the woman. Anyone with information that can help
solve this crime is asked to call Peel's Central Robbery Bureau at
905-453-2121 ext. 3410.