Girl, 12, Kidnaped From Gated Complex, Raped

The rape of a 12-year-old girl kidnaped from an exclusive gated community in Huntington Beach stunned neighbors and prompted concerns Monday about safety.

The girl was kidnaped Sunday at 5:15 a.m. from her home inside the Sea Cliff on the Greens complex. She was raped, then pushed nude from her abductor’s truck about a mile from her home, Huntington Beach police said.

“I’m in a state of shock,” said Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who lives a few blocks from where the girl was kidnaped. “It’s a gated community. You pay extra for the guards. In this day and age, it’s like living in a jungle.”

Sea Cliff on the Greens, with houses and condominiums priced from $400,000 to more than $1 million, is a walled complex off Palm Avenue and Golden West Street with a private security force and at least two iron gates with guard stations. Much of the complex is under construction; police said the kidnaper may have entered through one of the building sites.

Huntington Beach Police Capt. Bruce Young said Monday that the kidnaper, who is still at large, entered the victim’s two-story condominium in the 6000 block of Panorama Drive through an unlocked sliding glass door and confronted the girl, who was sleeping with a friend on a living-room sofa bed.

As the girlfriend slid under the covers and pretended to sleep, the man grabbed the victim by the arm, covered her mouth with his hand and carried her in her nightgown from the house, according to police reports.

Young said the girl’s father, awakened by screams, ran to an upstairs bedroom window and watched his daughter being carried away. The father told police that by the time he ran downstairs and into the yard, the kidnaper and his daughter were gone. He said he then called police.

Young said the intruder drove the girl in a white compact pickup truck to an open field in an unincorporated county area near the Huntington Beach city limit, not far from Bolsa Chica Street and Warner Avenue.

According to police, the man raped the girl in the truck, then pushed her out of the cab nude but clutching her nightgown. Young said the girl then put her nightgown on and walked to a gas station for help.

Police said they believe that the intruder parked his truck on Palm Avenue outside the complex and either climbed a wall or entered the development on foot through one of several construction sites.

The victim was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she was released after being treated for the rape and cuts and bruises on her mouth. She also received counseling by the county victim-witness program.

“It appears to be a crime of opportunity,” Young said. “He may have been prowling around and found the door open and then attacked the girl. That is just speculation, though.”

No other incidents in Huntington Beach or nearby cities have been reported similar to the attack on the girl, he said.

Police described the assailant as a white man about 30, with dark hair.

The girl’s name was withheld. Police said she is “very traumatized” by the rape and has difficulty giving details to detectives.

The neighborhood was rousted from its sleep early Sunday as officers on foot and in helicopters searched the area. Residents of the development near the Seacliff Country Club said they are shocked by the assault and questioned the guard services supplied by Great American Security Co.

Allen Marcus, president of one of three homeowners associations in Sea Cliff on the Greens, said about 110 residents held “a hot and furious” discussion Monday night about the incident and decided to add two roving guards with radios to the security force.

He said frustrated residents also want to stop all vehicles at the two main gates to the 4,000-acre community before they enter the grounds and decided to ask Huntington Beach police to monitor the area more frequently.

“This is a tragic, isolated incident, an incident that police tell me might never happen again in a hundred years,” Marcus said. “What we are trying to do now is shore up our own lines.”

“I’m terrified about it. Anyone would be,” said Maria Ruhmel, who lives in the complex and was awakened by police helicopters Sunday morning. “You live in a gated community, and you don’t expect this to happen. This happened to a child, and that was astounding.”

Spokesmen for Great American Security and the Sea Cliff on the Greens sales office declined comment Monday on the incident or the security force.

“It’s tragic, especially when you have guards and a gated community,” said Deborah Hoyt, who lives with her family in the development. “It’s the first incident I have heard of in the complex. It kind of rattles you.”

Supervisor Wieder, who moved to Sea Cliff on the Greens a few months ago, said she became concerned about security after she saw that guards are not carefully monitoring construction vehicles entering the complex.

“Security was one of the incentives for moving to Sea Cliff on the Greens,” Wieder said. “They need to identify every vehicle that goes through those gates.”

Police said security might be difficult because of the amount of construction and the ease with which some of the building sites can be entered on foot or by vehicle.

“The security thing is misleading,” Young said. “The walkways are not secured. A lot of the project is not occupied yet, and there are a lot of carpenters, electricians, interior designers and plumbers frequenting the area. It is easy to get into.”

Huntington Beach Girl was attacked and released in county territory 12-year-old girl abducted from Sea Cliff on the Greens neighborhood of Huntington Beach