Local News in Brief : Another Woman in Mercedes Robbed

A 37-year-old woman was robbed shortly after she pulled her Mercedes-Benz into her garage, adding to the growing list of “follow-home robberies” plaguing residents of affluent areas of the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, police said Friday.

Police said Judy Sklar was confronted in the garage of her home on Benedict Canyon Drive south of Mulholland Drive by a robber who took her jewelry and cash at noon Thursday.

The case has been assigned to a task force of Valley detectives investigating 30 similar robberies or attempted robberies since mid-October in which drivers of expensive cars were followed home by armed robbers.

Sklar was not injured and because of poor lighting in the garage, was unable to tell police if the robber was armed with a gun, as in the other cases.

Most of the robberies have occurred in San Fernando Valley hillside areas from Sherman Oaks to Woodland Hills, with 12 in Encino. Nine have taken place in West Los Angeles. More than $300,000 in cash, jewelry and furs has been taken.