Police admitted on Tuesday that they have few leads and no suspects in the latest brutal robbery of an immigrant family in their home. Residents of Sørumsand were shaken by the violent, daylight break-in that left a couple and their children bound up for hours.
Their ordeal began early Monday morning, when the 39-year-old Pakistani-Norwegian mother of four opened the door of the family’s modest home to take out some trash. Suddenly she was attacked by two masked and armed men believed to be in their 20s.
According to police, they hit her in the head with a pistol and forced her back into the home, which is located over the “Mix Grill” restaurant the family runs in Sørumsand, located about a half-hour’s drive northeast of Oslo.
She and her husband, also 39, were then bound up with tape, as were three of their children, aged 10, 13 and 16. The couple’s youngest child, age seven, was not bound but a friend visiting the family was.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) and newspaper Aftenposten report that the seven persons were then threatened into turning over wallets, mobile telephones and cash. While one of the men kept watch over the bound victims, occasionally hitting the father in the head with a pistol, the other spent nearly two hours ransacking the family’s home, carrying out entertainment equipments, computers and other valuables. Finally they fled in what police believe was a black Audi.
The family remained bound but the 13-year-old finally managed to free himself and contact police, who spent most of the rest of the day examining the home and looking for any clues that could lead them to the assailants.
The robbery is the fifth violent home break-in in which immigrant families are the victims since last December. One involved a 19-year-old woman of Iranian descent who was home alone in Bærum, while other victims have included a Tamil family living at Økern in Oslo, a Vietnamese family living in Drammen and a Pakistani family living in Oslo’s Bjørndal district.
Police called for any tips from the public and said they were looking for similarities between the robberies. Monday’s victims reportedly said one of the robbers had white skin, the other dark.
