Home Invasion Prompts Search

A 39-year-old Orland resident on Monday was handcuffed and blindfolded in her home by a suspect who threatened her for money and then dialed 911 before fleeing.

As Cathy Cote lay helpless on the floor of her Jaclyn Drive house, her only thought was, “I’m glad my son isn’t home,” she said.

Orland police received a couple of 911 calls from a Jacquelyn Drive residence around 9:28 a.m., according to OPD Sgt. Terry Baker.

The mother of three returned home around 9:15 a.m., from taking her 6-year-old son to school, Cote said.

“When I walked inside, a man shoved me to the ground,” Cote said.

Cote was found bound, blindfolded, gagged, and laying on the floor of her residence in the 700 block of Jacquelyn, OPD officials said.

Cote said the suspect threatened her for money.

Cote said she believes the intruder was likely paid to attack her by an ex-lover over a property dispute in Sacramento in 2006.

Baker said OPD immediately set up a perimeter around the neighborhood and called in Glenn County sheriff’s deputies, a GSO K-9 officer, California Highway Patrol officers and Fish and Game officers to assist in the search for a male suspect who ran into west into a nearby orchard towards Interstate 5.

A helicopter circled above the orchard watching for a suspect while sheriff’s deputies and CHP units waited outside the orchard for someone to come out.

As the search came to close, Baker, another OPD officer, a sheriff’s deputy and the sheriff’s K-9 unit searched the backyards of some Date Street homes that bordered the orchard.

Police believe the incident was likely pre-meditated. Cote’s residence has been entered three times within the past several weeks, but nothing was taken, Pasero stated.

Cote said she was not hurt and was tied up for about 15 minutes before police arrived.

After he tied her up, the suspect, described only as a short, skinny man with a deep voice, apparently dialed 911, placed the phone on the floor and fled out the backdoor.

“I didn’t hear him dial, but I obviously couldn’t do it and no one else was home,” Cote said.

A manhunt failed to capture the suspect and was called off around noon.

Cote’s neighbor, D.J.Janda, said he and other residents of this newer subdivision are concerned about vandalism and the access a bicycle path offers teens and troublemakers to neighborhood homes.

He said Cote and her family are nice people who live across the street from him, and he believes the suspect may have gotten away by parking a vehicle in the alley behind the homes.

Janda said sprinklers have been broken, the ignition to his boat damaged, and a neighbor’s house was egged prior to the home invasion incident.

He also alleges bikes are used to transport drugs to the trailer park nearby on Old Highway 99.

Janda said he has kids and he is worried for their safety, but complaints to the Orland City Council in the past brought no response.

“I don’t think he wanted to hurt me, I just think it was like a warning,” Cote said.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Orland Police at 865-1616.