Horrified Texas parents catch robbers on their Ring camera holding up their teen daughter at gunpoint
The home invaders could be heard warning the teens being held at gunpoint: ‘Don’t pick your f****ng head up or I’ll pop your a**!’
A pair of Texas parents tapped into their Ring camera last week while they were away to check in on their daughter, only to be met with a nightmarish scenario when they saw that the teen girl was being held up at gunpoint alongside two other young people.
The terrifying video, in which the whimpering daughter can be heard as she and another girl and boy are told by the handgun and rifle wielding home invaders to put their heads face down on the floor, was shared on the homeowner’s Facebook account.
The harrowing footage shows two male home invaders carrying firearms as they direct the teens, two girls and a boy, during a home invasion in the suburbs of Houston on 20 April at approximately 8.40pm.
The pair of robbers had reportedly made their way into the Pasadena home by taking advantage of the niece of the homeowner, who had turned up at the front door to get some clothes from the garage, the mother wrote in the Facebook post she shared with the accompanying video.
After the niece entered the home, the pair of gun-wielding robbers rushed the teen daughter whose parents own the Texas home and proceeded to loot the place while keeping their firearms trained on the hostages.
Shortly after the pair began rummaging through the house for goods, you can hear the father shout through the Ring camera’s microphone: “Hey, who’s in my house?” and “I got you on camera!”.
The pair seem confused initially and can be heard mumbling something inaudible. The girl’s mother then pipes in, “The cops are on the way!”.
The gunman then shouts out to the other robber that they should “go”, and the pair can be seen swiping up the last bits of stolen goods before marching the niece back into the living room with the other two hostages.
The father provides a final warning, noting that the neighbours have also called the cops. “‘Y’all better get out of my house, now!”
Before leaving the premises, the hooded pair gave one last warning scare to the group, shouting back: “Don’t pick your f****** head up or I’ll pop your a**.”
In the accompanying Facebook post, the mother wrote that she couldn’t capture the feeling she experienced when she turned on her Ring app and saw her daughter in the midst of what would be considered most parent’s worst nightmare.
“It was very hard for us to watch as it was happening but I am posting this video so that if anyone has any information please let us know,” she wrote in a post that has since been hidden from the public. “I would like these people off the streets so they don’t do this to anyone else.”
Despite their best intentions to try and assist in the investigation, local police were dismayed to learn that the parents of the home invasion captured on the Ring app decided to share the footage online before consulting with the detectives on the case.
“We can confirm a ‘home invasion’ happened in the area of 4300 Nations,” the Pasadena Police Department wrote in a Facebook statement regarding the viral footage captured on the family’s Ring app.
“The video that was released to the media was not discussed with the lead detective in the case (before its release,) complicating the investigation and resulting in an undue panic among several citizens.”
Authorities also said that the incident is being investigated as a “targeted attack by known suspects and victims” and wanted to reassure the public that there is “no direct threat to the community by these suspects targeting unsuspecting victims”.
The Independent reached out to the Pasadena Police Force for comment on the case.