Wyn Delano
WMAL.com

POTOMAC, MD (WMAL) – 39-year-old Robert Dove knocked on the door of a house on Sable Way in Potomac, a house where he once lived before going to prison. An 80-year-old woman that Dove didn’t know answered. He told her he was there to inspect the house’s roof. The woman thought this strange, since Dove had shown up on a Sunday. At that moment, Dove drew a knife and entered the house.

At knifepoint, the man demanded money and jewelry from the woman. After she brought some, Dove told the woman to drive to an ATM and get more. Terrified, the 80-year-old started talking to the criminal.

Then, a change happened:

Instead of becoming more violent, Dove opened up to the woman – telling her his name and revealing that he was in a pre-release program, where inmates are placed in “halfway houses” that help to reintegrate them in society. He told her that since he had left the center he would be wanted by police.

The 80-year-old, not knowing how else to get out of the situation, suggested that they both go for a drive. Dove liked the idea and even left the necklace he was stealing on a table in the house to pick up later when they came back.

Dove told the woman to drive to Poolesville, the small town where he grew up, and took her to a farm where he used to hunt. After that, the 80-year-old said she was hungry and wanted to go to a restaurant in a bold gambit to get to a more public location. Dove suggested a local place where several patrons and staff recognized him.

He introduced the old woman as “his friend.”

After, when Dove wanted to return to her house, the woman suggested that she pay the bill for him to stay at the Hilton in Rockville instead. She paid in advance for three nights – October 14th through the 17th – in the hotel.

Dove then let her leave under the condition that she go straight home and call him. Instead, the woman went straight to a friends house, but didn’t immediately call police out of fear that Dove would find her and retaliate. She also held out hope that Dove would turn himself in as she had urged him to do so throughout their day together.

The next day the Sheriff’s office in Montgomery County received a tip that Dove was staying in the Hilton and arrested him on an escape warrant. Shortly after the arrest, the woman called Montgomery County Police and told them her story. Dove, under interrogation, confessed to the home invasion and kidnapping of the woman.

Montgomery County Police Sergeant Rebecca Innocenti says its possible that police may not have found him as quickly as they did if the woman did not book him in the hotel:

“He wouldn’t have been in that hotel and then, certainly, the pieces of the puzzle began to come into place when our investigators learned he had been in that hotel,” she said.

While the woman’s tactics were highly unusual, Innocenti says that she actually did the exact right thing:

“Although she was frightened, she did what she believed would keep her safe and that’s what we want people to do. Whatever you think is best to keep yourself safe in that situation.”

Police say they are not releasing the identity of the woman in order to both protect her privacy and safety.

Dove, who is now facing charges of of home invasion, armed robbery, first-degree assault, and kidnapping in addition to his second-degree escape charges for violating his pre-release agreement. He’s in court today for a bond hearing.

Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Montgomery County Police)