An early morning home invasion left a family of four terrorized after they were held at gunpoint for over an hour while being threatened with death.
Michael Miller, 51, was asleep when someone tapped him on the shoulder and repeatedly told him to keep quiet.
He slowly sat up and realized he was staring down the barrel of a handgun wielded by a masked man. It was around 3 a.m. yesterday, Miller recalled.
“I was sleeping and all of a sudden someone tapped me and said ‘get up’,” said Miller from his home, off Carmichael Road yesterday afternoon.
“When I got up, he said ‘don’t make any noise’. I was shocked.
“One said ‘time up’ and they turned me over and tied my hands behind my back, and they asked ‘who all is in here’.
“I said my daughter and my wife.” His wife, Sylvia, 57, was awoken next by the three masked men and forced to lie flat on her stomach.
Miller’s daughter, Michaela, 23, who was asleep in the second bedroom, told The Nassau Guardian of a similar experience.
“I was woken up by three guys,” she said, while sitting beside her parents in their living room yesterday.
“They tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘wake up, wake up’ and when I looked up, all I saw were three guys; one with a flashlight, and another with a gun in my face.”
Michaela Miller said as the men instructed her to get out of bed, she pleaded to be allowed to pick up her one-year-old daughter.
“They said ‘hurry up and get her’ and when I got her she woke up; she began to cry, and they said ‘shut up, make her shut up’,”she said.
“When I went inside my parents’ room they were lying flat on the bed and my father was tied up.”
The assailants became incensed when the child would not stop crying, according to her mother, who then suggested that she be given something to drink.
One of the men complied and returned from the kitchen with juice, but the child refused it. Michaela Miller said one of the men told her to, “turn her around; she doesn’t need to be seeing this.”
“I said please, you all can have whatever you want, but please don’t take our lives. I have a child to live for,” she said.
The victims were asked to point out where any cash or guns were hidden. Michael Miller responded that they did not have those in the house.
He said one of the men then began barking for the location of the Millers’ automatic teller machine (ATM) cards and their pin numbers.
Two men left the home in Mr. Miller’s black 2008 Ford F-150 truck and his daughter’s 1998 Honda Accord, while an armed man remained behind.
The Millers, now held hostage, said they silently prayed that they would survive the ordeal.
“He said ‘the code better be right because if the code isn’t right you are going to get shot today; you are going to get shot today’,” Michaela Miller said.
“He [told my father] ‘only because of your granddaughter and your daughter, because pops you’re stubborn’. I was scared and I just started praying.”
Both vehicles, a gold watch, gold and diamond wedding band and several cell phones, were among the items stolen, according to the family who reported the crime to police.
The men emptied two bank accounts of more than $1,500 collectively, the Millers said.
The culprits reportedly bragged that the Millers were deep sleepers, and did not wake even after they broke the back bedroom’s window pane and entered the house.
Only the front room has bulgar bars. The ordeal lasted just over an hour-and-a half, the family said.
Mr. Miller, an Atlantis chef, said he is concerned that he and his family may not be as lucky if they are targeted in the future.
“They said, ‘we have been watching this place for a little while’,” he said.
There was a strong aroma of bleach, as the suspects had poured the cleaning product on the floors just hours before, according to the family.
They also vandalized several doors and walls, including the bathroom mirror with graffiti, cursing the police. They also left messages that read ‘big guns’, ‘mad money’, and ‘crime time’.
While their total loss exceeds $15,000 the Millers said they are thankful to be alive. The Millers said this is the first time they have been victims of crime. They have lived in the area since 1986.
Last week, a 69-year-old woman was shot in a home invasion off Nassau Street, police said.
By Royston Jones, Jr.
Guardian Staff Reporter
