ENCINO : Four Masked Robbers Terrorize Family in Home

Los Angeles police were looking Thursday for four men who terrorized and injured members of an Encino family during an invasion-style robbery in which the robbers were looking for a safe.

The family members--a couple and their two sons--were asleep at 1 a.m. Wednesday when the robbers, all wearing ski masks, kicked open the front door of the house in the upper-middle-class neighborhood. They locked the 46-year-old wife in the bathroom, then demanded that her husband, 50, and their sons, 20 and 17, show them where the safe was.

“It’s a nice neighborhood, but it’s not the kind of neighborhood where houses have safes,” said Detective Robert Johansen.

The male family members were struck in the face or head with pistols before the robbers became convinced that there was no safe. The woman was so badly frightened that she broke through the bathroom window to escape, badly slashing herself with broken glass. The robbers left after taking a small amount of money and jewelry worth about $4,000. Names of family members were not released.