WHITING, Ind. (CBS) — Police in several Northwest Indiana towns are looking for three Chicago men wanted for a series of daylight home invasions of elderly residents’ houses.
Police identified the suspects as Sandy Ely, his son, Tony Ely, and a cousin, Anthony Miller. The men could be traveling in a GMC Acadia. They’re all considered armed and dangerous.
The crew is talking their way into the homes of the elderly and getting away with cash and valuables.
“They’re going to tell you they’re from the water department, they’re from a utility company,” Det. Cpl. John Siple of the Highland Police Department tells CBS 2’s Pamela Jones.
Home surveillance video shows a Hammond woman in her 90s enter her door back in June after getting her mail, with a suspect right behind her.
Police photos from Highland show the mess the crew allegedly left behind when they forced their way into the home of an 87-year-old man in August.
The victim says he was dragged to a safe, and a suspect held a screwdriver to his neck, threatening to stab him.
“’Open this safe, or if not, I’ll run this screwdriver into your neck,’” the victim said he was told. “What could I do against three people in their 40s?”
Whiting, Ind., police Chief Stephen Miller tells the Northwest Indiana Times that elderly people tend to wait for the mail to come, and when they go out the door to get it, the robbers force them back inside.
But the offenders have also knocked on doors telling people their houses are on fire or used other ruses.
In one such case in East Chicago, Ind., on Aug. 8, the home invaders came inside a 95-year-old woman’s house, and told them that if she didn’t stop hitting them with her cane, they would hit her with a statue of the Virgin Mary, the newspaper reported.
The three men invaded the home of an 87-year-old Highland, Ind., man the same day and robbed him, the Times reported.
They are also suspected in Sept. 9 the robbery of a 79-year-old couple in Merrillville, in which they held a screwdriver to one victim’s neck and threatened them with a shotgun. They also hit the couple several times, threw furniture on top of them and yanked their telephones out of the walls, the Times reported.
They have been seen driving a gray four-door Acadia with false plates, and a dark gray Jeep Commander with temporary Illinois license plate 589 M 586, the Times reported. One East Chicago police detective chased the men into the city’s South Chicago neighborhood, but they escaped after hitting a squad car, the newspaper reported.
But writing them comes with a ton of work. It requires patience. Which is something I massively lack.
There are days you have to wait for the story the words are forming to unfold itself, while other times you have to work through periods when creative juices don’t want to flow. Then there are those nights when you are too tired and worn out from your demanding day job and you don’t have the energy in you to type a single word- even when you very badly want to.
A final draft can be terrifying and wreak havoc on your self-confidence. I often question every single sentence, determined I can make it better. Disappointed because it doesn’t seem good enough. Taking them to pieces because my grammar sucks.
Writing books is one of the hardest and biggest challenges I have taken on, but I am on the right track. I know not everyone will like what or how it turns out in the end, yet I also know this is what I am supposed to do. I feel it a thousand times over.
And when I’m done and my story is complete, the feeling of accomplishment that resonates in my chest is a high that has me addicted.
My mind is on fire. It can no longer suppress stories or characters. While I work on one book the next is weaving its way through my thoughts. Growing and stacking as each day passes.
If I don’t write the words down fast enough I fear I might lose them. So, I find myself forever writing no matter what other mundane tasks I am involved in.
I reasoned it was okay. I was fine because the first one is really bad writing due to I not having any earthly idea of what the hell I was doing.
Until somewhere, in the middle of my second manuscript, my lack of patience started to mess with me and I found myself doubting I would actually complete it.
With each frustrated breath, the importance of taking my time with my words kept sounding an alarm in my head. I knew for the sake of my characters I needed to reach deeper inside me in order to surface emotion onto the pages, if I wanted to reach the next level of writing. If I didn’t want it to turn out like the first book.
I was. To some degree. But a huge part of me didn’t like what was resurfacing. I slapped up a wall faster than I could blink. I was left feeling misunderstood and awkward. And alone.
While this entire process played out for the past six months, I busied myself with my social media accounts. I used them to help give a reprieve from my thoughts and find new books to submerge in. One can never be alone when lost in a book.
By being my awkward, lonely self and following what I am truly passionate about, I walked into a world of book bloggers, other authors, and people who adore the written word as much as I do.
I suddenly knew I belonged. I found where I fit in. My niche. My tribe. My fellow romance lovers. The amount of support I’ve seen and felt, for each other, especially in the romance genre has amazed me. They root for one another, share each other’s works, and recommend books endlessly.
When my day goes down the tubes (which occasionally happens), I know I can escape into the tribe and find what I need to make the next step. It’s encouragement via powerful force. Encouragement that understands. I have never been more excited to be part of something in my life.
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