4 Arrested in Torture of Worker in Valley : Crime: He escaped after captors allegedly plucked out his eyebrows, caged him with dogs and burned him with stun gun.

Three men and a woman were arrested after a window installer working at a Sepulveda house was handcuffed and tortured for several hours before he escaped and ran naked down the street screaming for help, authorities said Saturday.

Ronald Henry, 23, of Simi Valley managed to escape his captors after they had covered his body with glue and feathers and while they were heating tar to pour over him, Los Angeles police said.

“It was some sort of business dispute,” Sgt. Paul Haberman said. “A really bizarre thing.”

Henry was spotted running down Noble Avenue by a neighbor about 6:30 p.m. Friday, Haberman said. During a three-hour ordeal, he said, Henry’s hair was cut off, his body burned with a stun gun and his eyebrows pulled out. He also was placed in a cage with six vicious Rottweilers.

Sgt. George Thomas, who directed an investigation at the scene, said Henry was “pretty shaken” when police arrived. He said his captors told him they were “going to take him out into the desert and bury him in the dirt and leave him for dead,” Thomas said.

The Rottweilers, a five-foot caiman--a South American alligator--and several scorpions were taken from the house by Los Angeles city animal control officers. A rattlesnake, which was destroyed, and a frozen alligator also were found in the residence, police said.

Two brothers who live across the street said they saw Henry run out of the driveway. One of them, Sal Velasquez, a 34-year-old bus mechanic, said the victim had a gag in his mouth and red marks on his body.

Then several men started chasing the victim, Velasquez said. Officers from the Devonshire Division’s CRASH unit, on their way to investigate a narcotics deal in the area, were first on the scene.

“In less than two minutes, cops were all over the place,” Velasquez said.

Despite his ordeal, Henry was not seriously injured. He was treated for cuts, bruises and burns in the emergency room at Northridge Medical Center and then allowed to go home, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police arrested the occupant of the Noble Avenue house, Jeffrey Shepard, 29, and three of his friends on suspicion of kidnaping and assault. Shepard’s associates were David Lowen, 23, of Northridge; James Marley, 25, of Simi Valley, and Feliz McAlpine, 29, of Sepulveda.

Shepard and McAlpine were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. Lowen and Marley were released on $100,000 bail.

Shepard, whose father owns the house, told investigators that the victim owed him money.

Henry apparently was among several workers who had been hired by Shepard to remodel the four-bedroom, one-story stucco home--only blocks away from a crime-plagued neighborhood where police have erected barricades to keep drug dealers out.

Several construction workers waited outside the house’s bright yellow door Saturday morning. One man with long blond hair and tattoos on his arms said he and other workers were present when the incident occurred, but did nothing to stop it.

“I couldn’t tell whether the guy was in pain or if they were just kidding around,” said the man, who would not identify himself. “It got a little bit out of control. He might have been getting his butt kicked, but I didn’t do it, so I didn’t care.”

“I’m sure he deserved it. He owed some money or something,” the worker said of Henry.

Dorothy Graham, a retired photographer who lives next door to Shepard, said the remodeling had been going on from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. “I couldn’t hardly sleep,” she said, “but I didn’t dare to ask them to pipe down. I have three dachshunds and I was scared his dogs would go after them.”

Andy Velasquez, 27, who owns a small construction business, said he was supposed to have gone to Shepard’s house Friday to talk to him about a job. “I’m really glad I didn’t,” he said.