HOUSTON – Houston police are searching for a gang of armed robbers they believe have robbed seven people in southwest Houston since Dec. 1 in and around the 8700 block of Town Park Drive.
Alma Torres, the single mother of three, was robbed Dec. 3 around 11 p.m.
She had just gotten home from church and parked her car. She was headed to her apartment when two men confronted her in the parking lot.
“The guys come to me and said ‘why you, why you looking?’ and I said like, 'I don’t know,' and he took my cellphone,” she said.
Torres says the men grabbed her cellphone and ran to a waiting SUV. But she didn’t let it go. She followed them and demanded her phone back. She says that’s when they began punching her in the face.
“Seven times,” she said. She still has the bruises to prove it.
The same suspects are believed to have committed several other robberies at Torres' apartment building, Villas De Palmas in the 8700 block of Town Park Drive, and two other robberies at neighboring apartment buildings in less than a month.
In some cases, they carried guns.
In all of the cases, they took the victim’s cellphone, and often much more.
Victims describe anywhere from two to seven robbers involved. All are young Hispanic men.
In Torres' case, the bruises are fading, but the feelings of impotence and insecurity are still strong.
“This no good. This is hard,” she said.