Urbandale Man Charged in Break-in; Mom and 3 Kids Held by Armed Intruders

An Urbandale man has been charged following a Friday break-in at a home in southern Iowa where a 26-year-old woman and three children were held inside a house by several men with weapons.

According to the Des Moines Register, William Crawford-Beveridge, 24, of Urbandale, was charged with felony counts of robbery and burglary and four serious misdemeanor counts of unlawful imprisonment.

The woman told authorities that she and her 10-year-old son saw four masked men wearing black clothes in the house about 10:25 p.m. Friday, the newspaper reported. The men demanded drugs, money and guns.

When the woman told the suspects she didn’t have drugs and tried to use a pellet gun she was hit in the stomach with the butt of the gun. Two younger children, ages 4 and 3, were in the house, too, the Register said.

The newspaper said the woman eventually called her husband from a cell phone that she kept hidden.

When officers arrived, they saw three people in black leaving the house and arrested Crawford-Beveridge.

Authorities are asking the public to help locate the other suspects; call the Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010.