Robbery victim offers free college education to thieves if they turn themselves in

Dr. Victor Ho, 46, wants the men who held him up at gunpoint in his own home to turn themselves in. If they do, he and his wife will pay for their education.

"If you commit the crime you have to do the time, but once you get out, we’ll help you out," Ho told the Houston Chronicle. “Whether it’s a trade school, whether it’s higher education, I will support that all the way.”

“We offered a reward, then increased [the] reward,” Ho told TODAY.com of trying to catch robbers who remain at large. “And we realized, if they’re caught, they’re just going to go back out on the street.”

Instead, Ho and his wife, Arielle Lawson, decided to offer something valuable in return for surrender: Free education.

“We want to show our kids that we’re the better people, and maybe change the mentality of some of these kids who probably didn’t have the opportunity for an education,” Ho explained. “Maybe it will work to get someone off the street. Maybe it will raise social consciousness.”

On the afternoon of October 17, after picking up two of his three children from school, Ho pulled into his driveway in their upscale Houston neighbourhood where a white van, facing the street, was idling.

Ho spoke to the van’s driver, who said he was waiting for someone before he promptly drove away.

Ho, a SWAT-trained emergency room doctor, left his kids watching the Disney Junior channel in the car and headed into the house to investigate.

Moments later, a masked man put a gun to Ho’s head. Another masked man joined them, and demanded that Ho open the home’s safe. He did, and handed over $3,000 in cash, four handguns, two shotguns, and the other contents of the safe.

Then the men asked for more money and jewelry. Ho, quickly realizing the robbers were amateurs — one of them was obviously scared and told his partner, in Spanish, “Let’s get out of here” — was able to remain calm.

"I’m affected, yes, but I’m better prepared than most people in the community to get a gun pointed at their head," Ho told the Houston Chronicle, alluding to his SWAT training and stressful work environment.

Eventually the men “ineptly” tied Ho up and left. Ho was able to wriggle free and call the police just moments before his children walked in.

Local police arrived within minutes.

Ho later learned that the men forced their way into the home when a housekeeper opened the door. They tied her up in the bathroom. She was otherwise unharmed in the invasion.

Now Ho and his family are hoping the robbers turn themselves in — and take the family’s offer of making a better life for themselves.

"There was a young kid and I could tell he was nervous. He was shaking," Ho said of one of the robbers. “That’s the person I’m really targeting for this.”

"I want them to get caught," Ho emphasized to the Beaumont Enterprise. “But I want them to have hope when they get out rather than going right back to jail.”