Home invasion is Sonoma County’s 6th of the year
Authorities say thieves are targeting newly legal marijuana
Two men broke into a Santa Rosa home Wednesday and tied up a resident before making off with marijuana, authorities said, marking the sixth cannabis-connected home invasion this year in Sonoma County.
The invasion took place at 9:30 a.m. on the 3300 block of Primrose Court, said Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff ’s Office. One suspect allegedly came in through the front door and a second person came in through the back door with a gun.
The suspects fled after stealing an unknown quantity of marijuana, leaving the victim tied up in the home, authorities said. No one was injured in the robbery, Crum said.
Sonoma County’s sixth home invasion comes on the heels of a series of violent break-ins in the past few months. In February, four men and a woman allegedly broke in to two houses in Santa Rosa in search of marijuana. The suspects are accused of killing a man, Jose Luis Torres, 54, at one of the homes. Suspects in the killing led police on a high-speed chase to Vallejo before being apprehended, authorities said.
In March, seven men were arrested for allegedly invading three homes in Petaluma. In those incidents, authorities said, no marijuana was actually stolen.
The cases in February and March involved people from as far afield as North Carolina and Virginia, officials said. Investigators found that the suspects came to the Bay Area “with the express purpose of stealing marijuana,” Crum said.
Law enforcement believes the recent legalization of cannabis for California adults 21 and over is directly contributing to the recent spate of home invasions in the North Bay.
“The only clarity we know is that word has gotten out that marijuana in California is abundant and it’s easy to get,” Crum said. “And it’s way more profitable in the areas where they live, where it’s illegal.”
Suspects in Wednesday’s incident have not been identified, and Crum said he didn’t know whether they were local or from out of state.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Sonoma County Sheriff ’s Office said the search is ongoing for two men in their 30s who fled in a “large gray van, similar to a rental van.”