GENEVA, Switzerland – An armed vandal busted into a Collonge-Bellerive home on the early morning of Thursday 30 April, and threatened four people at gunpoint before fleeing with several stolen items, police said.

The first victim, a gardener, reported being held at gun point and forced onto the home where the owners and another employee were.

Once inside, the man, who was wearing a ski mask, forced the owners to open the safety box taking all of the jewelry that was inside.

The man then fled in the family’s car taking the gardener as a hostage.

Police told the Tribune de Genève that a Tunisian national, 35, had been arrested in Ain, neighboring France in connection to the robbery, and is now waiting extradition to Switzerland.

The family lawyer said the suspect seemed to be the same person that attacked the couple four years earlier at their home. The convict had just been released from prison in Switzerland. That man, the TdG says, has a long rap sheet including 14 years in prison.

There have been three home invasions (or home-jackings as they are known in French), so far this year in canton Geneva.

A month ago a family in Corsier was also held at gunpoint by a masked man.

The suspect in that case was never captured but the getaway vehicle was later found in  Ain, France.

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