Police Find Victim of Home Invasion Hiding in Basement Due to Warrants

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A bizarre twist to a home invasion now has the ‘victim’ behind bars.

According to police, two armed suspects broke into an apartment in the 9400 block of Nieman shortly before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, and robbed the man living in the apartment. But the man who lived in the apartment, Willie A. Rattler, 43, had several outstanding warrants against him. Police said he convinced his girlfriend, Christine M. Locke, 40, to claim she the victim of the robbery.

Another neighbor, Kim Pew, said Rattler came to her door asking for help.

“I hear the knock on my door and it’s my neighbor,” she said. “He was tied up, and I had to literally uncut his arms and uncut his feet.”

Pew said Rattler didn’t want her to call police. Instead he wanted to borrow her husband’s shotgun. But when Rattler ran back to his apartment, police had already arrived.

“He comes back in, puts the gun back upstairs and then hides himself in my house, in the basement,” Pew said.

Half an hour later police used a K9 to get Rattler to come out. That’s when Rattler and his girlfriend, Locke, told police she was the one who had been tied up and robbed.

“He had some warrants out for his arrest and that was the reason he did not want to talk to us,” said Gary Mason with Overland Park police.

Rattler and Locke have been charged with felony obstruction of justice for giving a false report.

“Regardless of whether you got the warrant or not, we’ll work with you, but we want to be able to solve a crime, especially a person-crime like this involving a weapon,” Mason said. “It’s imperative that we get all the information right away and not delay our investigation.”

Police are still searching for the two robbery suspects, described as white males in their twenties. Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS or to text 274 637 and include the code TIP452 in the message. All calls and texts remain anonymous.