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Palm Springs police looking for 2 men behind violent home invasion

'I thought we were going to end up dead,' resident says
Posted at 10:25 PM, Jun 17, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-17 23:22:29-04

PALM SPRINGS, Fla. — Palm Springs police are looking for two men behind a violent home invasion.

"They walk in and start saying, 'Give me the money,'" Sandra McArthur said as she recalled the frightening moments when the men walked inside her home demanding money. "He said, 'Don't make it worse than it has to be' and stuck a gun to my neck and waved it around," McArthur said.

Investigators said the men invaded the home Saturday afternoon on Springfield Lane in Palm Springs, but surveillance cameras were rolling almost the entire time.

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"One stayed in the living room, and one came in the bedroom with me and kept saying, 'Give me the money. Give me the money,'" McArthur said.

A camera in the victim's bedroom was recording as the gunman dumped out her purse looking for cash. Moments later, he could be seen lifting up the mattress, and he walks in front of the camera with a medical mask on his face.

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"The whole time he's saying, 'Give me more. Give me more money,'" McArthur said. "And I threw my hands up saying, 'I don't have anymore.'"

McArthur's two roommates said at first they thought it was a joke, but they knew they were being robbed when the second man cocked his gun in the living room.

"Thinking about it, I'm getting the goosebumps," Pierangela Raiani said. "That was scary. I thought we were going to end up dead. All of us."

McArthur said she handed over $600 from her purse, which she intended to use for bills, but the gunman also stole $800 from a safe in the closet.

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Days later, McArthur's nerves are still rattled.

"I'm afraid to answer the door," she said. "Anytime anybody knocks on it or anytime I hear a noise outside, I'm jumpy."

Police said the van the gunman was driving has been recovered, but no arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Palm Springs Police Department at 561-304-4822.