Armed Robbers Bind Victims, Ransack House : Crime: Intruders enter through garage. Detective says invasion-style thefts are migrating to the Valley from other areas.
NORTHRIDGE — Two children and three adults were bound with tape and ordered to keep their eyes shut as a pair of gun-toting robbers ransacked their house in a home-invasion robbery, police said Thursday.
The robbers entered the home in the 11500 block of Viking Avenue in Northridge about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday through the garage, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Bruce Normandy. They crept up on a 28-year-old house guest from Korea who was sprawled on the sofa, pointed a semiautomatic handgun at him, bound him and covered his eyes, Normandy said.
The thieves then went upstairs and surprised another guest, the two children and another woman and tied them all up, Normandy said. The two children were tied together.
The robbers then spent an hour ransacking the house before leaving through the garage and driving off. A neighbor helped the family call police, Normandy said.
“One of the things we’re looking at is whether it was random or they were selected,†Normandy said. The house’s owner, a 39-year-old businessman, had left for work at 5 a.m.
Asians in the northwest San Fernando Valley have been the target of five follow-home robberies in the past month, but these thieves seemed to be different, said Detective Henry Kim of the LAPD’s Asian Crimes Task Force.
A home-invasion robbery like this one “takes a little more skill, a little more planning,†Kim said. “The other ones are a little more opportunistic.â€
Kim said the home-invasion robberies seemed to start in Orange County and southern Los Angeles County as Chinese and Vietnamese gangs began to target other Asian groups who they assumed would have money in the house.
“I think it’s just graduating to the San Fernando Valley area,†Kim said, noting a similar robbery in Mission Hills in December. Most home-invasion robberies have occurred in the San Gabriel Valley.
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Another Valley resident was also reeling from a robbery Thursday.
A 62-year-old owner of a Downtown Los Angeles jewelry store parked his car on Saugus Avenue in Sherman Oaks while he went inside a wine store about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Detective Mike Woodings. Inside the store, he heard his driver’s side window being shattered. Three men and a woman stole two bags of jewelry the man had been preparing to take to Louisiana for a show, Woodings said. The jewelry was valued at $150,000, Woodings said.
The price tag of another Valley jewelry robbery has changed, police also said. A ring stolen from a Granada Hills home Monday was originally valued by police at $800,000. But the owner told police it was actually worth $3,500, Normandy said.
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