Home Break-Ins Terrorize Town : Crime: Victims in Arizona’s Cochise County have been bound and blindfolded while thieves stripped their houses of valuables.

Jorge Valenzuela says he sits at home with his shotgun. He keeps the TV turned low so he can hear his dogs bark. He sleeps fitfully.

Joseph Insogna says he feels safer working at the state prison in Douglas than being home in Bisbee Junction, a quarter-mile from Mexico.

The Naco and Bisbee Junction areas of rural Cochise County have been hit by at least six late-night home break-ins since January, terrifying residents who never used to lock their doors.

Victims have been bound and blindfolded as thieves stripped the home of valuables, stole their cars and fled to Mexico, police said. Two victims have been beaten. Last year, police reported just one such robbery.

Georgia LeGrand, 73, was jumped while watching television, blindfolded, bound with telephone cord and told she’d be OK if she cooperated.

“I just thought if I don’t panic and I do what they say eventually I’ll be all right,” said LeGrand, who was unharmed.

Cochise County has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Prompted by the break-ins, law enforcement officials and the area’s congressman toured the region by helicopter recently and were troubled by what they saw.

“You fly along that border, you realize how porous it is, and how difficult it is to do anything here,” said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.).

It is unclear whether Mexicans or Americans are responsible for the crimes in this border town of about 800 people.

A 17-year-old from Bisbee has been charged in connection with some of the break-ins, and a 19-year-old from Mexico is in U.S. Border Patrol custody, pending investigation.

Naco, Mexico, Mayor Manuel Bravo said police have been patrolling the Mexican side of the border extensively and “will do all they can.”

The chain-link fence separating the two Nacos is filled with holes.

The U.S. Border Patrol and Customs officers are providing round-the-clock helicopter patrols. There are plans to build a 10-foot high steel fence through town later this year.

In April, three men wearing ski masks and carrying assault rifles invaded the home of Robert and Margaret Stifler, both 84. They tied Stifler with phone cord, told his invalid wife to stay in bed and took thousands of dollars worth of property.

“You ask the people what scares them down here along this border, and it’s having somebody come into their house and tie them up and bind and gag them and threaten them,” said Cochise County Supervisor Michael Palmer.

Lorene and George Hart, who have lived in Bisbee Junction for 52 years, have added locks on their gates and six floodlights to their home.

“It’s very, very bad,” Lorene Hart said. “We never even latched our screen doors till a few years ago.”

During the congressman’s visit, Valenzuela, Naco’s volunteer fire chief, described how he spends his nights on guard. “That’s not a way to live,” he said.