PLACENTIA : Imitation Officer Robs Residents

Placentia police detectives were looking Wednesday for a man who posed as a plainclothes police officer to gain entry to an apartment, terrorize a family and steal two guns and an undetermined amount of cash.

The unidentified man carried a semiautomatic handgun and was dressed in a white sweater and acid-washed denims, Police Sgt. George Palmer said. He knocked on the door of the apartment, in the 200 block of South Main Street, at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday.

The gunman told a man who answered the door that he was a police officer and had a warrant, Palmer said.

“But after he goes in, he proceeds to do a robbery,” Palmer said, adding that the occupants “didn’t ask him for his identification. Sometimes people feel intimidated and don’t ask.”

Once in the house, the gunman lined up five members of the family against a wall and demanded cash and drugs, Palmer said. He struck one of the victims several times on the head with the weapon, causing minor injuries.

“He hit him just hard enough to get his attention,” Palmer said.

The assailant left the apartment after taking a shotgun, a blue-steel handgun and money, Palmer said.

Palmer said investigators do not believe that residents of the apartment, whose names were withheld for their protection, were involved in drug sales. Detectives speculate that the robber may have entered the wrong house.

The man--described as in his 30s, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with dark brown hair and brown eyes--left the area in a dark-blue, four-door sedan.