HOUSTON – A man was tied up during a home invasion in southwest Houston on Thursday, and he said he thinks he was followed home.
Injured and in shock, Filadelfio DeLatorre recounted the horror he felt as armed men violently invaded his home in the 11000 block of Vanderford Drive.
DeLatorre said his wife heard a knock and innocently opened the front door around 10 a.m. He said she came face to face with two armed men who forced their way inside, standing feet away from the rest of the family, including his teenage son and a 5-year-old girl.
It's what the men said next that made DeLatorre believe his family was no random target.
"I think they see me with the gold on my neck and my bracelet because when they got it, they said, 'That's what I'm looking for,'" said DeLatorre. "So they know. They follow me."
DeLatorre said he doesn't know where the men may have followed him from, but he said with the robbers in his home, he didn't want to go down without a fight. He said part of that courage came from wanting to defend his family and also because the jewelry the thieves wanted had been passed down to DeLatorre from his dying father.
DeLatorre said he jumped on one of the robbers.
"I grabbed his gun, but the other guy behind me hit me with a gun. Then by that time they tied my feet," DeLatorre said.
After being bound with extension cords, pistol-whipped and kicked in the face, he said he gave in and watched the thieves run off with his jewelry to accomplices waiting in the car.
Houston police said they are looking for four robbers, including three men and one woman, who may have fled the scene in a dark gray Honda Civic. Detailed descriptions of them have not been released.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.