VAN NUYS : Family Is Robbed After Passover Seder

A Van Nuys family returning from a Passover Seder was held up at gunpoint and terrorized by two robbers who ransacked their house and obtained more than $6,000 in cash and jewelry, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Steven and Dolly Salant, both 35, and their young children were left unharmed in their Enadia Way house after thieves forced Steven Salant to open a floor safe and withdraw $600 in cash from an automatic bank teller, Lt. Harvie Eubank said.

The ordeal began about 11:30 p.m. Friday as the family returned home from their synagogue on the first night of Passover and were accosted by two armed men as they pulled into their driveway, Eubank said. The parents were forced inside the house and bound with duct tape while the robbers ransacked the house. The children, who police said were about 3 and 6 years old, had been told to remain in the car. But when they followed their parents inside, they were forced to lie down on the floor and were covered with a blanket, Eubank said.

Steven Salant showed the thieves the floor safe after they held a gun to his head and appeared angry that they hadn’t found more valuables around the house, Eubank said.

Eubank said that while the incident resembled the follow-home robberies that have plagued well-to-do areas in the Valley, the couple were not sure how they were targeted. They were driving a 6-year-old Buick Skylark and their house is in a nicely maintained but not exclusive neighborhood, Eubank said.