56 Bags of Heroin Recovered After Robbery Staged as Home Invasion in New Haven: Police

NEW HAVEN, CT - Two people were arrested and others could face charges after a robbery that was staged as a home invasion, police said.

According to police, around 2:02 p.m. Friday, officers were called to a reported home invasion on Valley Street. A 16-year-old victim told ran from the scene and called police from a nearby Whalley Avenue Burger King. He told police he did not know the address of the place where he had been robbed but he would take officers there.

The victim told officers he had been invited by a friend to a home in the 400 block Valley Street where both him and his friend were robbed. Police went to the scene and detained five people including the victim's friend. Police described the home as full of pot smoke.

The home, which is not occupied by a legal tenant, had been searched by a police canine and his handler.

Police identified Tyquis Jahad Watkins, 22, and Andrew Douglas Perry, 24, as the alleged home-invaders.

After asking the victim for more details, he said he met his friend and another man at Whalley and East Ramsdell Street who led him to the residence. His friend and the other man made him wait at the door before his friend opened the door and told him to take a seat.

The victim said two men busted through the front door and threw his friend down on the couch, police said. The robbers took the victim's iPhone and his shirt and also emptied his backpack of its contents and stuffed it with an Xbox they found downstairs.

One of the alleged robbers was the same man the victim had walked to the house from with his friend, police said. The alleged robbers left the home and so did the victim and his friend. The victim wanted to phone police but said his friend had disappeared.

Both Perry and Watkins were charged with:

• Home invasion
• Second-degree larceny
• First-degree robbery
• Conspiracy to commit home invasion
• Second-degree conspiracy to commit larceny
• First-degree conspiracy to commit robbery

Additionally, Perry was served with an outstanding warrant. Police said it was his nineteenth arrest.

Others at the house were questioned and a woman was issued a summons for interfering with police. The victim's friend insisted that he too was a victim.

A woman at the house told police the home invasion was staged and the victim had been set up.

The legal resident of the home was located and a consent to search was signed. The victim's stolen property was recovered along with 56 bags of heroin.

The investigation is ongoing.

Images via New Haven PD

Pictured Left: Andrew Douglas Perry

Pictured Right: Tyquis Jahad Watkins