Mableton, Georgia, America, 29 December 2011

It was horrific time for Gujarati NRI Keval Patel and his family.

Keval Patel and his parents were cooking dinner when the group of gunmen ran into their home and tied them up, and then put a blanket over them as they searched the house for money. He said his father was taken into another room at gunpoint and suffered a panic attack.

“They kept asking us where the money was,” Patel told the station. “We told them we didn’t have any. We told them it was in the bank.”

Cobb Police are investigating this armed robbery and aggravated assault incident in Mableton, in which four or five men forced their way into Patel’s home and held a family at gunpoint. No injuries were reported in the invasion.

The home invasion was reported around 8 p.m. Tuesday on Collins Lake Way in the Estates at Collins Lake subdivision off Fontaine Road. Police said the men who broke into the homes had their faces covered and were wearing black clothing. All were armed with handguns, according to police.

The victims were ordered to the floor at gunpoint and ordered not to move, said Officer Mike Bowman. He said while some of the perpetrators pointed their handguns at the victims, the others ransacked the house. They then took several items of value along with cash before fleeing, he said.

Patel family is from Gujarat, India, and there are other Indian families in Cobb and metro Atlanta have been targeted by thieves, Bowman said. But police don’t know why that is.

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