Are you tough enough…to handle real life NINJAS?
Trio of ‘ninjas’ invades Yorktown home
OLIVER W. PRICHARD
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Original publication: Feb. 09, 2001
YORKTOWN — A trio of men dressed like ninjas and armed with a samurai sword and crowbar invaded an Ettman Place home yesterday, brawling with a man and his teen-age sons before escaping with about $500 in cash.
“I was shocked — I was in the bathroom and these two masked marauders busted into the house,” said Brian Hauptner, a burly construction worker who fought the robbers off with his teen-age sons. Police said there were three assailants.
A suspect, 18-year-old Jordan Castro of Yorktown, was in custody last night and facing charges related to the burglary, according to police.
The violent home invasion began about 8:30 a.m., when the men forced their way into the home and assaulted Aaron Hauptner, 17. The teen-ager then screamed for help, and his father and 19-year-old brother joined a five-minute melee with the assailants.
Brian Hauptner grabbed a longbow he uses for deer hunting and struck one of the men, who was wearing white ninja garb, in the head.
The blow caused a serious head wound and the assailants then ran out of the house and sped away in a green Ford Escort, Yorktown police Lt. Anthony Masi said.
“We’ve put out an alert to all hospitals and clinics in the area who may be treating a 16, 17 or 18-year-old male with a head wound,” Masi said.
Dressed in a sleeveless undershirt and baggy jeans outside the Yorktown police station yesterday, Aaron Hauptner said he was getting ready to leave for his construction job in the Bronx when the robbers entered the home, threw him to the ground and began choking him.
“It was a pretty big ruckus,” said Hauptner, who had dried blood from one of the victims on his arm. “My brother came in and started head-butting the guy in the face. It was pretty cool. I didn’t know my brother could throw down like that.”
Ryan Hauptner, 19, had a bruise on his head from a glancing crowbar blow and a cut on his nose from being punched while wearing glasses.
After the robbery, Yorktown detectives searched the lawn in front of the family’s secluded home for footprints in the snow and collected forensic evidence from inside. Brian Hauptner said his younger son knew one of the robbers, and that police had taken that man in for questioning.
“There’s kids coming and going from there at all hours, and they speed down the street,” said Mlyryk Wasyl, whose son and grandchildren live on the same block. “I tell them they’re going to kill somebody.”
Bill Male, who was installing vinyl siding next-door, said he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until police arrived and questioned him.
“Of course, if they were ninjas, you wouldn’t see them,” Male said
