Crime & Safety

Police: L.M. Home-Invasion Victims Were Robbed for Business Cash

The crime—in which a Levering Mill Road couple were forced into their basement while their kids slept upstairs—was not random, an officer told the Neighborhood Club of Bala Cynwyd.

The Levering Mill Road couple who were by robbers on May 1 were targeted by someone who knew the man owns a business with a lot of cash on hand, Lower Merion Ptl. Shawn Clifford told the Neighborhood Club of Bala Cynwyd Tuesday night.

"This kind of job, it's not random," Clifford said at the civic association's meeting. "That house was being targeted for a specific reason. People with cash businesses keep a large amount of cash in their house. They found out where he lived."

Clifford declined to share more details about the department's investigation, but he and township officials wanted to at least assuage any fears that the robbers had struck at random.

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Ward 13 Commissioner Brian McGuire said many residents have asked him about the investigation, and he said detectives were currently pursuing leads—during the Neighborhood Club meeting, as a matter of fact.

"We'll be giving you guys some updates as we get them," McGuire said. "I know there's a lot of concern."

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The day after the robbery, police told local media that three or four armed, masked men had broken into the home on the 400 block of Levering Mill Road about 2 a.m. They detained a woman in her basement, then seized her husband in the driveway when he arrived home a half-hour later and detained him with her.

The robbers demanded to know where valuables were hidden, and they struck and injured the man while they grilled the couple. Sometime after the men left, the couple got free and called police. The couple's three children slept through the invasion and were unharmed, police said.


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