Woman terrorized in Pearland home invasion

Two home invaders made their way into a residence and terrorized the homeowner, who had just returned home.

It happened near Fallscreek Court and Foxglove in Pearland's Silver Lake subdivision. The mother of the house came in around 3:30pm. Twenty minutes later, two masked men came in the back door, which was unlocked, and took her hostage in her own home.

"Brandished a gun, forced her to the floor," said Jimmy Miller with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department. "At this time, they then tied her hands behind her back, gagged her and forced her into the bedroom, into a closet."

They started ransacking the house and loading up her SUV to use as a getaway vehicle, but she was able to free herself and squeeze through a side window in the closet. She then ran frantically to her neighbor's house.

"I heard her screaming hysterically," said neighbor Allen Endowitz. "So I jumped up."

And when Endowitz saw his neighbor, it wasn't hard to tell what had just happened.

"They had tied her up. She still had some duct tape on her face," he said.

They called 911, but as they waited for deputies to arrive, they saw the victim's daughter pull into her driveway and start to go inside.

"I started sprinting over there and started yelling as loud as I could for her to back away and stay away," said Endowitz.

The yelling scared the burglars and they jumped a back fence. With detectives confirming home invasions are on the rise, this quiet cul-de-sac remains unsettled.

Detectives say there have been at least three home invasions in the Pearland area. And while there are some similarities in these home invasions, they cannot link them just yet.