SIMI VALLEY : Woman Robbed of $2,000 in Cash, Gun
A muscular man wearing a skeleton mask and armed with a screwdriver broke into a Simi Valley woman’s garage apartment Friday morning and robbed her of $2,000 in cash and a handgun, police said.
Julie Espasandin, 37, told police that the man climbed through the unlocked side window of her apartment in the 900 block of California Street and took a handgun. He then gagged Espasandin, bound her with a pair of handcuffs he had brought and made off with the money and the gun, according to police reports.
Espasandin said later that the robber seemed to know exactly what he wanted. He demanded the cash that she and her husband had set aside to buy a new car and used a screwdriver to jimmy a locked cabinet containing the loaded .38-caliber revolver.
“He kept saying, ‘I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to hurt your daughter, just give up the money,’ ” Espasandin said.
Espasandin said she ran next door, still wearing the handcuffs and a bandanna gag on her mouth, to alert her landlord, who called police.
Espasandin said she and her husband believe that the robber knew them.
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