Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jul 2012
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Katy Sweeny

POLICE: MARIJUANA MOTIVE FOR MOST HOME-INVASION ROBBERIES

CHICO - Marijuana attracts violence - including the home-invasion 
robbery Friday of likely the wrong Chico home, a police sergeant said Monday.

"Everybody who is not just selling marijuana, everybody who is buying 
it to smoke a little recreationally, is perpetuating this crime 
whether they believe it or not," Sgt. Scott Franssen of Chico police 
said Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, Franssen said police have not arrested the 
two men who broke into a home Friday on Roseleaf Court off Oak Way 
demanding marijuana and money. Police think the pair had the wrong 
house as there is no indication the residents grew or sold marijuana there.

Franssen thinks marijuana dealers and growers would be lucky to be 
caught by police rather than violent criminals, he said.

Police are investigating whether the robbery is related to an armed 
carjacking early Friday morning at the Chevron station on Nord Avenue 
and an armed robbery Thursday on the 800 block of West Second Avenue, 
Franssen said. However, the suspect descriptions are not identical.

Officers recovered the carjacked Mercedes about 20 hours later not 
far from where it was taken, Franssen said.

"There's a lot of dopers and thieves out there and thugs and they are 
out there doing their thuggery and unfortunately a lot of the people 
who are our victims are involved in drug dealing and other criminal 
behavior," Franssen said. "They are putting themselves at risk."

As the marijuana harvest season approaches, Franssen thinks there 
will be more "rip-offs," he said. The vast majority of Chico's 
home-invasion robberies are drug related.

"Buyers and sellers beware," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom