EVERETT — The robbers suddenly appeared that afternoon in May.
A man was working at his upscale home on Sound Avenue along Everett’s gold coast overlooking Puget Sound. He was installing an invisible fence and left his garage door open.
When he stepped back inside, he was confronted by three strangers wearing dark-colored hoodies.
“Don’t look at me,” one told him, and pointed a handgun at his head.
The homeowner did as he was told, and got on the floor. One pressed the gun to the back of the victim’s skull while another fished his wallet from a back pocket.
That got the robbers only about $100, and they debated taking the man to an ATM for more cash. Instead, they tossed aside the emptied wallet and left through the garage door.
When police arrived, the homeowner realized his son’s PlayStation 4 was missing.
He had no idea who had come into his home to rob him, but he told officers that he’d probably be able to recognize his attackers. Among other things, he remembered that the gunman had a chipped front tooth.
The day after the robbery, police reportedly got an anonymous tip about the stickup crew. One of the robbers was named “Frankie,” and the tipster offered up the screen name the alleged bandit used on Facebook, deputy prosecutor Toni Montgomery wrote in Snohomish County Superior Court papers.
A couple days later, the homeowner’s son acted on a hunch. Shortly before the robbery he’d brought a girl home. The day after the holdup, she blocked him from her Facebook page.
The young man thought there could be a link.
With his father looking on, he went to the young woman’s Facebook profile and clicked on the people she listed as “friends.”
The man who was robbed “instantly recognized one of the ‘friends’ as the suspect that held the gun to his head,” Montgomery wrote.
Moreover, that person’s Facebook profile belonged to a man named Frank and he used the same screen name that the anonymous tipster had provided police, the prosecutor wrote.
And the guy had a chipped front tooth.
Early this month, Frank Steve Djoko, of Mountlake Terrace, was charged with first-degree robbery.
The man turned 20 two days after the May 24 holdup.
Djoko pleaded not guilty at a July 7 hearing. His bail was set at $100,000.
He has no adult criminal history, but he’s already racked up 13 misdemeanors, mostly for assault and theft.
He also has a juvenile felony conviction for burglary in King County, according to court papers.
Police are working to build cases against others believed to have been involved, officials said.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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