Kids duct taped, dad pistol-whipped during robbery in Morganton, police say

MORGANTON, N.C. — A family in Burke County, including two young children, was tied up and put in a closet during a home invasion robbery. It happened early Saturday morning at a home on Tate Street in Morganton.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned the family was temporarily staying at that home. The mother said they were staying with a friend while their house was being built when they awakened to guns pointed at them.

Police said three men wearing ski masks kicked in a door to get inside the home. Police said two of the three suspects were armed.

Investigators said the father was pistol-whipped and the mother was assaulted in a bedroom of the home. Faherty learned their 6 and 7-year-old children also had their hands and mouths duct taped and were put into a closet of the home.

Faherty spoke with the mother by phone Monday, who told him her family is fortunate to be alive. She said they were able to get to a neighbor’s home to get help.

“The only thing I can say is it was traumatic,” she said. “Looking back now, I don’t know why we are still living. I woke up with an AR-15 pointed to my head and I watched as they pistol-whipped my husband.”

The family said the men demanded money, stealing their social security check and the husband’s work check before leaving.

Police did a reverse 911 call in that area to alert neighbors about the robbery. They asked neighbors to be on the lookout for three armed men.

Mark Swords lives at the home but said he wasn’t here when the robbery happened.

“To me it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “I don’t understand -- why do you want to hurt a child?”

Police aren’t sure why the family was targeted, but the mother said she won’t be going back to the home.

“The kids are traumatized,” she said. “How would you react if you woke up to guns pointed at your face, watching them beat your husband and drag them all over the ground?”

That mother said she and her husband both have facial injuries.

Police said they have not identified any suspects and had only a vague description because the men were wearing ski masks.

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