Beware of who you allow in your home and what they might see. That is just one lesson learned as one Pennsylvania family’s need to declutter led to tragedy for another.
Kelvin Roberts and Charles Fulforth were arrested and charged this past December with murder, burglary, and related offenses in connection with a wrong-house home invasion that left Andrew Gaudio dead and his mother, Bernadette Gaudio, paralyzed.
“The motive in this case was to steal guns, and they simply got the wrong house… They went into the wrong house with bad intentions and shot an innocent 61-year-old woman as she lay in her bed, and they executed her 25-year-old son,” according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.
Investigators say that Bernadette Gaudio called 911 just before 2:30 AM on December 8 as she lay in bed with multiple gunshot wounds in her home on Meredith Road in Wynnewood. Roberts and Fulforth broke into the home through the basement intending to steal firearms and ammunition but had the wrong house, according to Steele.
Now, a third man has been charged in connection with the home invasion, 26-year-old Jeremy Fuentes of Philadelphia. Authorities say that Fuentes, Roberts and Fulforth were operating a gun trafficking ring, providing firearms to criminals and otherwise prohibited individuals. All three men worked at Junkluggers, a junk removal business out of Willow Grove. Steele says Fuentes tipped off Roberts and Fulforth about a home in Bucks County that had a similar address to the Gaudio residence in Wynnewood.
According to Steele, Fuentes had provided a junk removal estimate at a home in Bucks County on December 6 when he identified a large gun safe, firearm boxes, gun parts and ammunition at the residence that were unrelated to the estimate. That’s when Fuentes allegedly called Fulforth, tipping him off and noting that the homeowners were elderly.
“Fuentes is the individual who goes, does the estimate on the home in Bucks County, relays that information to Fulforth and that’s the impetus on why they go to this residence,” says Steele.
Authorities shared some of the evidence they had collected at a press conference, including machine gun conversion devices for altering semi-automatic firearms to fire full-auto. Steele is confident that the dismantling of this gun trafficking ring provides additional safety for the community, with six criminals having been rounded up as a result of the investigation thus far. Police, however, are still searching for two outstanding suspects.
“We’re looking for Marcus Lee Jackson and Corry Simpson. If anyone knows where they are, don’t approach… Call police,” Steele said.
For his role in the home invasion and the death of Andrew Gaudio, Fuentes is being charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy.
From the tragedy and sheer terror that both the victims and intended victims must have felt, this story highlights the dangers associated with strangers in your home and what they have access to. Of course, nobody should need to fear having a business enter their home to provide services, but that isn’t the world we live in. Lock up expensive or sensitive items out of sight during these visits and take precautions to ensure your family’s privacy and safety.
Next they’ll want to make it a law to conceal your gun safe, ammo, and accessories in your home.
“Next they’ll want to make it a law to conceal your gun safe, ammo, and accessories in your home.”
Then they will prosecute you for not having a permit to have a concealed gun safe or concealed ammo in your home.
Perps should be executed by firing squad.
I am just shocked, shocked I say that these hooligans didn’t go to a proper gun store with an FFL and filled out the relevant 4473s to get their firearms.
House clean out can easily be a scam/criminal thing. We’ve been antique dealer’s over 30 years & seen everything you could possibly imagine. I echo Debbie ‘s sentiment!
Several years ago someone who was dressed nicely (wearing “business casual” clothing), holding a clipboard, and wearing an identification card on a neck lanyard knocked on my front door. Before opening my front door, I visually scanned my front yard and driveway. The man at my door saw me scan everything, saw me scan him up-and-down, and also noticed that I had a handgun visible in a holster on my hip. Upon engaging him, he explained that he was making appointments with neighbors to demonstrate vacuum cleaners. In spite of appointments that he made with neighbors, I declined. The interesting aspect of this? After his inquiry with me at my front door, he left the neighborhood and never came back to any of the appointments with my neighbors.
I was already leery about that gentlemen for reasons that I could/cannot articulate, even though he was dressed nicely, had a clipboard with authentic looking company information, and was wearing an identification card on a neck lanyard. Maybe it was the fact that he was looking to demonstrate vacuum cleaners in homes which is something that we just haven’t seen in a VERY long time. At any rate, the fact that he left and never came back to ANY of my neighbors homes leads me to believe that the company demonstration thing was a ruse to get into people’s homes and either case the homes or flat-out rob them.
Moral of the story in this article and my experience: stay frosty.
Why would you open the door anyway? There is no good reason to ever open your door to strangers. But it’s your life.
Fair point Frank.
can i be earnest?
LOL tsbhoa.p.jr
“I was already leery about that gentlemen for reasons that I could/cannot articulate, even though he was dressed nicely, had a clipboard with authentic looking company information, and was wearing an identification card on a neck lanyard.”
I can articulate it for you – and that is you were rightfully “lerry”. The ‘vacuum cleaner’ thing is part of the ‘door to door targeting’ scam that runs in cycles. Its involves someone looking like they might be legitimate for their ‘sales’ or ‘survey’ or ‘information’ approach, but in reality they are scoping out the area for vulnerable homes/people.
Now granted, its not everyone that comes to your door. Sometimes legitimate companies hire people (or have an existing employee) to ‘cold call’ to get info so a sales person can make contact to try to sell you something.
But mixed in this ‘legitimate’ ‘activity clutter’ are sometimes unsavory types that are: One, sizing up the area to see if people are home during certain hours or get an idea if neighbors are observant or get an idea of how easy to enter – and plan to return later and break in if its a viable opportunity for them, Two, if its a viable target of opportunity right then where they just go ahead and commit their crime if you let them in or unlock or open the door.
They have someone to look legitimate when they do this, may even have what looks like a legitimate ID. It runs in cycles, about every several years this seems to re-surface in some form. It can be for anything from vacuum cleaners to a ‘survey’ about your internet service and a bunch in-between. One sign is people who appear to be going door to door like this for these purposes but tend to hang around the house for a bit after not getting an answer but they ignore homes where people are obviously home, but this is not always the case and they can go to every house too just to see who answers and doesn’t so they can identify places where people might not be home during certain hours. They may even mention that they spoke to some of your neighbors about what ever they are doing (i.e. setting up vacuum cleaner demos) as a way to make you view them as having some legitimacy.
The other one to look out for is ‘house cleaning’ or ‘junking’ services. These frequently, by not checking background closely, hire criminal minded types, or convicted felons, or even prostitutes sometimes who’s pimps have gotten them employed by the service to scope out homes from the inside. Sometimes they use ‘temp employee services’ to get their people and have agreements with the temp service who just sends them anyone and in that mix is people who are criminal types. They get into the home to do what ever they were hired to do, scope it out, and if its something they want they come back later and break in (or in the case of prostitute they tell their pimp who arranges for the break in).
I seen that a couple of times in my grandmother’s neighborhood. One instance was two young guys in office attire posing as power guys trying to get people to switch to another power company. My mother was doing yardwork for my grandmother when they approached her but wete startled when l popped up. Moreever, all their company paperwork was stained and crumpled, probably from dumpster diving. That is besides both of them looking 17, called the cops on them and they did nothing
Second time was a young white posing as an all natural exterminator. I declined hus services, looked up his company and it was bogus. These guys really lurk in elderly neighborhoods.
Thanx 4 info TTAG
A lot of gangs use females as their frontmen, as they usually have better financial/legal records, and are more easily employed.