Staff Writer

Authorities are investigating a home invasion and robbery reported early this morning at Union Mill Crossing Apartments.

The victims are a 23-year-old woman and a 24-year old man. The woman told Sgt. Kevin Powers with the Union Public Safety Department that a friend brought her home from the store around 12:50 a.m.

She walked into her apartment and didn't lock the door. She said she started down the hallway toward the back bedroom when she heard the front door open and four black men wearing ski masks and carrying handguns came rushing in.

The man said he was in the back bedroom with the couple's one-month old child when he heard the men enter. He said the men took him into the kitchen and made him lie face-down in the kitchen floor. They stripped his pants and underwear off of him and took $120 from his pants pocket. The men advised him to stay down and one of the men kept a gun pointed at the back of his head while the others searched the apartment.

The female victim said one of the men asked where her money was. She told the man her pocketbook was in the living room on the recliner. After the subjects grabbed the pocketbook, they fled out the door.

The couple said they hesitated to get up at first because they didn't know if the men were still outside. After a few minutes they went to a neighbor's apartment to call police.

The woman told Powers she had $600 cash in her purse, her license, an EBT card, cell phone and other items.

The victims said one of the men had on a brown leather jacket with white fur down the sleeves and he was wearing a camouflage ski mask. He was carrying a silver colored semi-automatic handgun, possibly a .45 caliber. The other three suspects were wearing black shirts and black ski masks and were carrying black guns.

Theft

On 410 South Pinckney St. a woman told Officer Rusty Young Tuesday that someone took four Husqvarna chainsaws and a Stihl leaf blower from her truck. These are worth $2,250.

Anyone with information on the home invasion or this theft is asked to call the public safety department at 429-1713 or Union County Crimestoppers at 427-0800.