Robbery victim recognizes daughter’s voice behind mask

NAPLES, Fla. – The daughter of a woman whose Naples home was robbed last week was arrested after her mother recognized her voice during the incident.

“Give me the money!” the female suspect, allegedly Arlene Romero, yelled.

Nilda Vicente tried to call 911 on Feb. 13 when two masked robbers entered her home on West Alhambra Circle off U.S. 41 but she was knocked to the ground.

Moments before, Vicente’s boyfriend Hector Hernandez had gone out to their lanai to sip some coffee but had a gun smashed into his face.

The masked intruders, one a woman with a knife and another a man with a gun, entered the home and attacked Hernandez again at some point knocking his teeth out and causing the gun to go off.

Vicente had no idea who had entered her home.

It was when the masked woman screamed “Give me the money!” that Vicente suspected her own daughter, Romero, was somehow behind the robbery.

Hernandez was rushed to the hospital with injuries to his face. Recordings of the couple’s 911 call indicate Hernandez was badly hurt and suggest Vicente was going to tell dispatchers about her discovery.

“Two people got inside my house I think one of them — he’s bleeding everywhere,” she said. “They were wearing something on their heads but I recognized…”

Romero is in Collier County jail facing felony charges of grand theft and robbery, according to arrest records.

Collier County deputies are still looking for the second suspect.