ST. GEORGE — A 73-year-old St. George woman is warning people to be cautious after she and her 81-year-old husband were beaten Saturday by a group of men who forced their way into their home.

One of the men who broke into the home beat Jean Behling in the head with a pistol, requiring her to get eight staples. Her husband Harry was bruised and suffered a cut elbow in the incident.

“Really, the whole community feels traumatized because they don’t feel safe in their own homes,” Jean Behling said.

“You might let others know to be on guard to protect themselves,” she said.

Dorchester County Sheriff’s deputies arrested three men Sunday afternoon they believe were involved in the incident.

William Barnes, 20, of Dorchester, was arrested and charged with first degree burglary, armed robbery and grand larceny, according to Sgt. John Poole of the St. George Police Department. A 16-year-old will be charged as an adult and a 15-year-old will be charged as a juvenile, he said.

Jean Behling said the incident occurred between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday night. She and her husband were sitting in the den when they heard a knock at the door.

“The door to the carport was locked and I didn’t think anything of opening it,” thinking it was someone she knew, Behling said.

Three men forced their way in. They wore black shirts, black pants, red doo rags and athletic shoes.

“It really looked like a gang uniform,” she said.

The man in front, bearing a big, black gun, hit Jean Behling twice in the head, then pushed her aside to get to her husband.

“I held a book over my head to shield it from any more blows,” she said.

The men then began to wrestle with her husband.

“They threw him against the table and I can’t account for the other bruises on his body,” she said.

Behling said “it’s a good thing my husband was turned away from me.” If he had seen his wife laying in a pool of blood, “he would have been very angry and things would have been much worse for him,” she said.

The men tied her husband’s feet and hands with phone cords. They tied her with bias tape and a phone cord.

“They wanted credit cards or cash and a car,” Behling said. They don’t carry credit cards, so the men emptied her husband’s wallet of cash, took her wallet and emptied a jewelry box. They also took checks.

“They said they were coming back in an hour and not to move. If we moved, they would kill us,” she said. But after they left “I was able to wiggle my hands free and hopped and crawled to the phone and called 911.” She also freed her husband, whose hands were turning blue.

They were transported to Trident Medical Center for treatment. And, “we have two sons who are doctors and they told us to take regular Advil. ... I guess that’s why we feel as good as we do,” she said.

Deputies from the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office apprehended the suspects at about noon Sunday when they noticed the couple’s car at Sharon Lane Apartments.

“They initiated a traffic stop,” Poole said. “The driver was not involved in the home invasion. He was arrested and charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.” The other three in the vehicle were charged in connection with the home invasion.

“We recovered the checkbooks and the vehicle, everything that was (taken) out of the house,” Poole said.

Behling said she does not know the suspects, although she and others had seen the men walking around town in recent days.

“Dressed like that, they really stood out, and that’s why so many people remember seeing them,” she said.

She and her husband are staying away from home until they get new, better locks installed. And Behling says she’ll now check the door before she lets anyone in.

But she does feel better now that arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

“They made a bad choice and I’m glad they’ll be off the streets for a while,” she said.

-- T&D Staff Writer Thomas Brown can be reached by e-mail at tbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. T&D City Editor Gene Crider can be reached at gcrider@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5570. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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