AN armed bandit on Tuesday night broke into the Glencoe home of Congress of the People (COP) member Rocky Garcia, before tying up his wife and youngest daughter and robbing them of a quantity of cash and jewelry.

The incident was one of a number of similar incidents to have taken place in the Glencoe and Westmoorings areas over the past several weeks, police said.

Officers close to the investigation said the robbery took place around 8.30 p.m., minutes after Garcia's wife and daughter arrived home.

Police said, upon their arrival, the two heard their dogs barking in the yard before hearing the sound of footsteps on the roof of the house. Seconds later, the lone bandit made his way into the house through a window and held up the woman and her daughter at knife-point.

Garcia, who is vice-chairman of the Chaguaramas Development Authority, was not at home at the time.

After confronting the duo, the bandit proceeded to tie them up and ransack the house, before escaping with an undisclosed sum of cash, jewelry, cellphones and other items, investigators said.

Following the ordeal, the woman and girl managed to free themselves and contact Garcia, who at the time was said to be at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. When he arrived at his home, Garcia took his wife and daughter to the Four Roads Police Station, where a report was made.

Contacted yesterday evening, head of the Western Division Snr Supt Ishmael David confirmed that within the past few weeks there had been an increase in the number of house-break-ins and robberies in the area.

He said the police were working on several leads in order to have those responsible for carrying out such crimes arrested, charged and prosecuted.

David said Western Division officers would not tolerate such activities within the Division. "We will hunt them down and we will find them," he said.

Acting Insp Thomas, of the Four Roads station, is continuing investigations into the latest incident.

—Rickie Ramdass