Robbers Break Into 3 Homes Before Dawn, Assault Man

Three homes were robbed and one man was brutally beaten on the head with a baseball bat in three predawn break-ins that occurred within 1 1/2 hours Friday in Yorba Linda and Brea, police reported.

Brea police were searching for two to four male Latinos believed to be driving a small white pickup truck. Police wouldn’t say if the robberies were committed by the same men. “It would be an awfully strange coincidence” if they weren’t, Brea Police Lt. Tom Christian said.

Jeffrey Malmrose, 25, a research engineer for a Tustin firm, was attacked by one of the intruders during the third robbery in Brea, police said. Malmrose was conscious and in fair condition in the intensive care unit at UCI Medical Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The other victims were not injured.

Malmrose’s mother, Ada, 62, said four young Latino males forced their way into the home in the 300 block of Woodland Avenue at 5 a.m.

“When I came out of my bedroom, they were in the hallway already saying, ‘We want your money,’ ” Ada Malmrose said. She said she gave them what she had--about $50 in cash and a 20-dollar traveler’s check, plus her credit cards. They also took videocassette recorders, stereo equipment and a microwave oven.

While she was in the kitchen turning over valuables, one of the youths armed with the baseball bat was attacking her son in his bedroom, Ada Malmrose said. She said the youths tried to restrain her from going to her son, but she broke free.

“When I got to the bedroom, my son was laying in a pool of blood,” she said. “There was blood all over.”

She said one of the other youths asked the one with the baseball bat, “Why did you hit him so hard?” and then added, “Let’s get out of here.” She said, “I think they panicked because my son was so badly hurt.”

Malmrose, a nurse at an orthopedic surgery center in Anaheim, said: “For the life of me, I can’t imagine why they would pick my house. There are no highfalutin antennas outside. It’s ordinary. Strictly ordinary.” She added, “You’d think with deadbolts and all that . . . but there is no such thing as safe.”

Christian said the men forced entry into each home but refused to say how.

According to police, the first robbery occurred at 3:45 a.m. at the home of James Romano, 42, in the 17300 block of Yorkshire Ave., Yorba Linda. The next occurred 59 minutes later about one mile away, at the home of Robert Ventura, no age given, in the 5800 block of Lakeview Avenue, Yorba Linda. The Malmrose home is about 7 miles from the Ventura home.

The intruders took jewelry, televisions, videocassette recorders and cash, with the total loss from the three homes estimated at $6,000, police said.