Have you seen these people?
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX- Five women and a man poured out of a van like clowns from a Volkswagen in an old-time circus act, but there was nothing funny about their intentions as they targeted the owners of a small business in East Montgomery County.
Sprockets Bicycles and More, on Ford Road in Porter proudly touts itself as a “mom and pop shop” with owners Matthew and Lisa Morrison, whose home is directly behind the shop. Both were in their shop just after lunchtime on Valentine’s Day, when they became victims.
Lisa Morrison, a lifelong EMC resident, is such a “people person” she’s even befriended some of the area’s homeless residents who frighten most people. When the van’s occupants initially spread out on her property behaving strangely, and somewhat rudely, she continued to be kind and accommodating, assuming cultural differences were responsible. The women wore head scarves and most used them to cover the lower parts of their faces as well. Morrison assumed the face coverings were connected to their religion, and never considered they might be trying to prevent someone from identifying them to law enforcement. After all, they didn’t look like a gang – they looked like a family. They were speaking another language Morrison couldn’t identify, but she was positive it wasn’t Spanish.
One of the women approached Lisa Morrison saying they were in the store to buy a bicycle for her “beautiful 7-year-old” child. Naturally, Morrison was happy to help. The woman said she needed help with her English, and she used Facetime to call a male relative who looked to be 10 to 12 years old. Morrison took the woman outside to show her bicycles, and the woman seemed determined to maneuver their position in a particular direction. In hindsight, Morrison could see it was to keep her where she was unable to see the front of her home behind the shop, but at the time, she was focused on helping and on not offending the immigrant family. The boy on Facetime translated their conversation. Since it was a video call, that was an added distraction, because it’s human nature to look at the person speaking.
The man driving the van had swiftly walked into the shop, talking on his mobile phone. After a moment, he headed for the backdoor. Matthew Morrison tried to be helpful by telling him there were no children’s bicycles in the back. However, the man ignored him and continued outside. Both Morrisons assumed he simply wanted privacy for his phone conversation. They now believe he was a lookout, and using his phone as a prop. One of the women had disappeared out front on her phone. Neither Morrison suspected anything was wrong. That is, until someone with the water company needed to unload a truck on the road near the shop, and in explaining things to Morrison, took her attention away from the orchestrated distractions and caused her to walk where she could see her house. That’s the moment when the “customers” panicked, realizing they were out of time and needed to flee. Lisa Morrison looked up just as the man started to drive away. She said at first, the man began leaving without all the women he’d brought, who were then running to catch up. Morrison was confused at first, and trying to ask what was happening, but the thieves hurried to get away.
Most of the answers as to what happened came later, when Morrison saw the safe gone from inside her master bedroom. When she reviewed security footage that showed the front of the home and the front of the shop, painting a clear picture of just how organized the criminals had been.
Unfortunately, some of them had boldly gone inside the Morrison’s home TWICE while they were distracted. The first time, the trespasser was the woman who’d disappeared pretending to use her mobile phone. The second time the thieves entered the home, the man who was using a phone to be inconspicuous had backed the van in front of their home and he went inside with two women and took the Morrison’s safe from their master bedroom. It wasn’t the portable lunchbox size with a handle. It was larger and heavier. It was also chained to an exposed pipe in the 1950’s-built home, and they seemed to be prepared for that, quickly cutting the chain and taking the safe to their waiting van.
The cash in the safe is a loss, but replaceable. Other items weren’t. Lisa Morrison had all her children’s baby teeth in the safe, along with $2 bills and old coins given by long departed family members. The Morrison’s marriage license was in the safe, theirs and their children’s birth certificates and social security cards, and a wedding ring a friend ask Lisa Morrison to place there for safe keeping. There was also a .22 pistol.
In the security video, two of the women can be seen when they panicked and fled, stealing bicycle seats. One of them stole an entire bag of seats.
As upsetting as the loss of the money and identifying information was, the biggest loss was the Morrison’s peace of mind. Their teenage son, with special needs, was in the shower and didn’t hear the intruders, or if he did, he thought it was one of his parents who often went back and forth, since the shop is in front of the house. It’s unclear whether the thieves heard the shower and fled, or only fled when they were signaled by a lookout that Lisa Morrison had inadvertently walked to where she could see they were loading her belongings into the van. For whatever reason, they took the safe but walked past jewelry boxes and multiple electronic devices and accessories. At some point, one of the women also dropped her mobile phone and left it behind – presumably during the sudden exodus.
As prepared and organized as the thieves appeared when they arrived, distracted, and stole from the bike shop, they didn’t cover their tracks well. They wound up ditching the van, which law enforcement impounded and then checked the VIN. The van was registered in California and not reported stolen (of course, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t or that whoever bought it last changed the registration). The dropped phone was also taken as evidence. It could be an untraceable prepaid, or stolen, but it may still be useful in the investigation because it had a pic of two of the suspects as the wallpaper – the man who drove, and one of the women (without her head and face covered). The boy who was translating via Facetime showed up at the bike shop later that day, on foot, looking outside at the property for the phone. The car that stopped down the street and let the boy out (so they wouldn’t be seen) was a 2009 white Mercedes, without visible license plates.
MCPR has taken still pics from the security video, and if these folks are around, someone should recognize them and, hopefully, report them.
Sgt. Steven Squier with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.
Anyone with information should contact the MCSO and refer to case #24AO43549.