DANVILLE — What started out as a normal Sunday morning for Ervin and Sarah Yoder turned into a nightmarish adventure. The Yoders, who own Mother’s Greenhouse on Cline Road near Danville, were the victims of a gang of would-be armed robbers.
“When we got up in the morning there were three guys with masks on the front porch,” said Ervin Yoder. “Mom happened to see them. So we went to the neighbors and called the sheriff.”
Yoder said the gunmen had been waiting in the shed for signs that somebody was up in the house. When Mrs. Yoder started the stove, they moved in.
“First thing mom does is unlock the door in the morning,” he said. “Then she goes over to the stove and fires the stove up. When they seen the smoke come out of the chimney, they come up to the porch. One of them knocked at the door. She was standing by the stove and happened to see he had a mask. So she woke me and told me, and I looked out and seen there was three guys standing on the porch with masks and guns. So we got the heck out the back door and went over to the neighbors and called the sheriff.”
While the Yoders were out, the gunmen entered the home and searched for guns, money and jewelry.
“That’s what the sheriff said they was looking for,” Yoder said. “They weren’t going to find much jewelry in an Amish house.”
The robbers did take some cash and a couple of Yoder’s guns. Yoder said the gunmen had their own handguns, a sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun and a roll of duct tape.
Yoder said sheriff’s deputies showed up within a half hour. Deputies were able to apprehend the gunmen as they were leaving the area.
Yoder is thankful for the quick work by the sheriff’s deputies.
“If they hadn’t caught those guys,” he said, “I don’t think we would have stayed in the house last night. We wouldn’t have felt safe.”
Yoder said he had not heard of other robberies or robbery attempts in the area recently.
Knox County Sheriff David Barber said that, although there had been some home robberies in the Fredericktown area, this was the first of its kind around Danville.
“We had been having some robberies around Lucerne Road and Knox Lake Road,” Barber said. “But we don’t believe at this time there’s any connection between the one Sunday and the ones in the Fredericktown area. It’s not unusual in residential burglaries [to target a home in a remote area]. Some of the ones in the Fredericktown area were back a lane and that type of thing.”
Barber said the Sunday burglary was unusual for a residence break-in.
“This was a little bit unusual because most residential burglaries take place when people are at work and the kids are in school,” he explained. “They did exactly what any person should do in this case. When Mrs. Yoder was woke up by the pounding on the door, and they looked out and saw them coming around the house, she didn’t answer the door. They did the appropriate thing and retreated to the neighbor’s, where he made the 9-1-1 call.”
Barber said people can protect themselves by being aware of strange cars in a neighbor’s driveway or parked along the road.
“What they will do in places where houses are not close together is park their car along the road, maybe raise the hood and turn on the flashers,” he explained. “Then they will do something like cut through the woods to the house.”
Another point made by Barber is what a person should say when reporting an incident like this.
“When they talk to the dispatcher they should report the incident as being ‘in progress,’” he said. “That will influence the response. Not just the response time, but the type of response.”
Barber added that if at all possible, the caller should stay on the line and keep the dispatcher updated on the progress of the incident. However, he added, if the victim of a home invasion cannot make an escape through a side or back door like the Yoders did, they should lock themselves in a bedroom or basement until law enforcement officers arrive and secure the area.
The investigation is ongoing, according to Barber, and the results of the investigation will go to the prosecutor’s office as early as today.
