CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
A Hammond, Ind. family recovers from a terrifying home invasion Friday night.
They were the victims of one of three robberies that occurred within hours of one another Thursday night. Hammond police are warning residents to be on their guard.
Around 9:30 p.m. Thursday, two men forced their way into the Martinez family's home at gunpoint.
Nayeli Martinez, 10, answered her front door and was confronted by two men, who barged in looking for whatever valuables they could find.
"I was terrified, I was really terrified," Nayeli Martinez said. "Once I saw him take the gun out of his pocket, I got so scared I felt I like I couldn't breathe any more."
She and her older sister, father and mother were home at the time.
"They just kept asking for money," 15-year-old Yadira Martinez said. "They said if you don't come up with enough that they were going to kill us."
They tied the family up with duct tape and ransacked the house, stealing money, a stereo and a cell phone. Bartolo Martinez and his wife Dora had their eyes and mouths covered as well.
"He just tied up my feet and my arms behind my back," Yadira Martinez said. "Then he just left and dragged her in with her, he pulled her by her hair and dragged her in and tied her up."
Then in a bizarre move, the two robbers asked the family for a phone number of someone they could call after they left to come and free the family.
No one was hurt in the incident, but the Martinez family said they are still very shaken up by what happened.
At the Martinez house Friday night, Bartolo talked about how proud he was of his daughters composure during the ordeal.
"I was surprised they way they take it you know," Bartolo Martinez said, "because I thought they were all going to be screaming."
Despite being bound and threatened, Yadira Martinez gave one robber a piece of her mind.
"He was like, ‘What are the valuables in your room?' I said well, the only thing I have is valuable is like quarters," Yadira Martinez said. "You want quarters, that's how desperate you are. Then he just looked at me like, ‘Shut up.'"
Four hours earlier, police said two men in a white van preyed on a 101-year-old woman. One man distracted her by saying her gutters needed cleaning, while another snuck in the woman's back door and stole money from her bedroom.
A few hours after, investigators told FOX Chicago News that a woman was carjacked by two men as she unloaded groceries outside her apartment.
Police said the three cases are not related. The 101-year-old woman may have been the victim of a gypsy scheme, and the description of the carjackers is different from that of the suspects in the violent home invasion.
