CORONA DEL MAR : Woman Is Robbed Outside Her Home

A 47-year-old woman was robbed of her jewelry and cash as she stood outside her home Tuesday night, but police said that they do not believe that the crime was linked to two other robberies in the Dover Shores neighborhood.

“There are a number of things that are different from the previous robberies,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said. “Nonetheless, the detectives will look closely at this case as well as the others.”

Police on Monday said they believe a band of armed robbers are responsible for two robberies this year in the neighborhood next to Upper Newport Bay.

In the first two attacks, as many as four robbers followed elderly men to their homes in the middle of the afternoon. In both cases, the victims left their garage doors open, giving the robbers access.

The robbers, who spoke to each other in unidentified foreign language, then tied up the victims and and ransacked their homes.

It was initially believed that Tuesday’s robbery was related, Gonis said. But detectives found too many discrepancies.

At 9:30 p.m., the woman pulled into her driveway on Harbor Point Drive, opened the garage and was accosted by a man wearing a stocking mask and carrying a pistol. He threatened to kill her if she did not hand over her jewelry. The man spoke in clear English.

She complied, and the suspect fled in a dirty, gray, imported sedan driven by another masked man.