Five arrested in Healdsburg home invasion

A 73-year-old Healdsburg man was roughed up and robbed at gunpoint in his home on the north side of town Wednesday by five teenage intruders who made off with a large jar of marijuana, police said.

The plot was foiled when an off-duty police lieutenant driving home from work heard the call on his radio and saw a Honda Civic traveling at a high rate of speed from the Sunnyvale Drive area where the home invasion occurred, authorities said.

Responding officers stopped the car and arrested all five occupants, finding a ski mask and a revolver inside linking the suspects to the robbery, Healdsburg Police Sgt. Nick Castañeda said. A replica handgun that shoots BBs also was found in the vehicle, they said.

The suspects included two 19-year-old men, two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old, police said.?The incident unfolded shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, when several intruders barged into the unidentified resident’s home, including one who wore a mask to obscure his identity while brandishing a handgun, police said.

Castañeda said a 28-year-old renter also inside the house jumped out a window when he saw strangers rushing inside. He dialed 911 when he heard the other man calling for help, the sergeant said.

The five intruders demanded marijuana, and there was a tussle before they left with the jar, fleeing in a car, authorities said.

The victim later identified those detained as the teens who had robbed him, Castañeda said. It was not clear if the victim was previously acquainted with any of them, though they apparently knew there was marijuana inside the house, Castañeda said.

Those arrested included Healdsburg residents Salvador Morelos Jr. and Jose Arroyo-Flores, both 19. They remained in the Sonoma County Jail on Thursday on $140,000 bail each, on suspicion of robbery, burglary, brandishing a weapon and elder abuse with force sufficient to cause great bodily injury. Morelos also was arrested on suspicion of threatening someone with a weapon.

Both he and Arroyo-Flores were scheduled to make their first court appearances today.

The three younger suspects were booked into Sonoma County Juvenile Hall, police personnel said. Their names were not released because they are minors.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.