Glendale woman injured in home-invasion robbery

Police are asking for the public’s help to find two men who allegedly physically assaulted a 68-year-old Glendale woman during a home-invasion robbery.

The woman suffered minor injuries, but she didn’t require medical treatment, said Glendale police spokeswoman Tahnee Lightfoot.

The woman was reportedly sitting in her living room at about 10 p.m. April 17, when she suddenly heard noises in the backyard of her home in the 1000 block of North Kenilworth Avenue.

Soon after, two men — both described as Latino, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9 with a medium builds — entered her home through an unlocked rear door and demanded money, Lightfoot said.

The men reportedly assaulted the woman as she directed them toward her purse.

They walked through the woman’s home looking for valuables and eventually stole her purse, which contained cash and credit cards, before fleeing.

Officers checked the neighborhood, but were unable to find any witnesses.

Police declined to release details about the assault on the woman because Lightfoot said it could affect the investigation if the men are identified and arrested. They were reportedly wearing black baseball caps, dark suede jackets, dark T-shirts, blues jeans and tennis shoes.

The violent break-in came just days before the Police Department released its first-quarter crime statistics, showing a slight increase in robberies from 14 in the first quarter of 2013 to 19 for the same period this year.

Overall violent and property crimes have jumped from 822 to 848 so far this year, according to the department’s latest crime stats.

Police are concerned that serious crimes could increase due to California’s prison realignment program, which allows low-level offenders to serve their sentences in county jails instead of prison.

“I think our fear is we kind of sit in a bubble right now and we don’t know when it’s going to pop,” Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

But the Police Department is working with the Los Angeles County Probation Department to monitor recently released inmates through its AB 109 Task Force, which includes officers from Glendale, Burbank and San Fernando.

While Lorenz said the department wishes the city was crime-free, it is still safe because of continued police efforts.

Still, police advised anyone with details about last week’s robbery to call Det. Petros Kmbikyan at (818) 548-3987.

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Follow Veronica Rocha on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.

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