TIFTON — A home invasion robbery, various assaults and reports by an employee of a local restaurant that a customer exposed himself to her at the counter kept local law enforcement agents busy over the weekend.

A man who lives in a mobile home on Palmetta Road reported early Sunday morning that he went inside the residence to find that his four roommates were being robbed at gunpoint.

According to the report filed at the Tift County Sheriff’s Office, a 27-year-old Hispanic man returned to the home he shares with four others to find two black males inside.

“The roommate came home in the middle of the event,” said Chad Davis, an investigator with the TCSO. “It scared the offenders away.”

The four men in the mobile home ranged in age from 19 to 49 and are apparently agricultural workers.

Sheriff Gary Vowell said that he believes that there could be more crimes against Hispanics that aren’t reported. Two other such armed robbery cases against Hispanics, reportedly committed by black males, have been reported since the first of this year.

“I’m sure there are cases that go unreported because of their immigration status,” Vowell said. “Regardless of their status, we urge them to come forward and report crimes. Their immigration status is incidental to the crime of armed robbery. We’re interested in solving that crime.”

Vowell also urges people not to carry large sums of cash.

The alleged victims in the 1:30 a.m. Sunday incident said they were awakened by the intruders. Only one of the assailants is believed to have been carrying a handgun. One of the victims was hit in the face and was bleeding.

If and when the robbers are captured, they will be charged with armed robbery, burglary and false imprisonment for stopping the victims from “moving about of their own free will.” The incident lasted approximately 19 minutes before the offenders fled on foot.

The cases of black on Hispanic crimes are eerily similar to the 2005 case where six Hispanic men were killed and four other Hispanics were assaulted in attacks in their homes in Tift and Colquitt counties. Three black men and two black women were arrested in that case.

Other crimes reported over the weekend to the Tifton Police Department included a street robbery. According to the incident report, a 33-year-old woman reported that at 6:15 a.m. Saturday she picked up two men, who she said were her friends, at Hill Avenue and Doc Melton Sr. Drive and that she drove to Woodlawn Avenue and Maple Street. She said she was still driving when another man snatched the driver’s side door of the vehicle open and punched her while the other man took a wallet from her purse.

The woman said she was able to get out of the vehicle and two of the offenders left in the vehicle. The woman reported that she attempted to call E-911 when one of the offenders snatched the cell phone from her hands and continued punching her. That man, she said, left with her cell phone, running toward U.S. Highway 41 South. The officer who made the report stated that the woman’s right eye was swollen but she refused medical assistance.

The woman reported that her purse with cash, debit cards, birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Security card and other items inside was stolen during the robbery.

Also, a 25-year-old woman who works at a fast-food restaurant on Second Street reported that at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, a customer came to the counter and exposed himself to her. According to the report, the man purchased food and ate inside the store before approaching the counter and exposing himself. The woman told the responding officer that the man raised his shirt, showing the woman that his pants had been pulled down. The man left the scene in an older-model Chrysler four-door car that was a silver and blue color. The woman said the white man was “dirty,” appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s and was wearing blue jeans and a white muscle shirt.

At 9:15 p.m. Sunday, a 24-year-old woman reported that another woman she knows grabbed her shirt and hit her in her head and face area with a closed fist. According to the report, she had to slip out of her shirt to escape from the woman. The woman said that she fell to the ground during the escape. According to the report, the woman said that she and the woman who attacked her are prostitutes and users of narcotics and that she had no idea why the woman wanted to “jump her.”

A 55-year-old man who lives in the 300 block of South Central Avenue reported at 10 p.m. Friday that he had gotten into an argument with a man he works with. According to the report, the complainant told the officer that he had been allowing the man to come to his residence to use the shower and his electricity and that he informed the man Friday that, since he wasn’t helping him pay his bills, he was no longer welcome in his home.

The man reported that the alleged offender became angry and picked up a machete and began chasing him around his home. It was reported that the alleged offender was calmed down by another resident and left before police officers arrived.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.