Inventor Shot at Home in Scuffle With 2 Men : Encino: William Faith is in stable condition. Attack may have been a thwarted burglary or a twist on a follow-home robbery, police say.

A 37-year-old inventor was shot on the front steps of his rambling Encino home Tuesday night during a struggle with two men who apparently jumped him after he stepped out of his late model Mercedes, Los Angeles police said.

William B. Faith, owner of Planet Earth Entertainment, a game manufacturing company in Glendale, was in stable condition after undergoing surgery at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was shot once in the abdomen.

West Valley detectives said they were looking into several possibilities, including a thwarted burglary or a twist on the follow-home robberies that have plagued other parts of Los Angeles in recent months. But in this case, Detective Harry Hollywood said, the gunmen already were at the victim’s home, in the 17400 block of Rancho Road, when he arrived.

“It’s not one of those classic follow-homes because they were already there,” Hollywood said.

Investigators have been unable to interview Faith, who faces further surgery when his condition improves. But Faith’s 33-year-old girlfriend witnessed the confrontation from a few feet away as she locked up the Mercedes. Police would not identify her.

Hollywood said the woman’s quick thinking probably saved Faith’s life.

“He starts to walk toward the door. There’s a scuffle, then two gunshots. He’s hit. He goes back to his girlfriend at the car and says, ‘I’ve been shot. Get me to a hospital.’ She did a good job. She got him to the hospital and she reacted in a very deliberate and calm manner.”

The woman told police the driveway was dark and the shooting happened so quickly that she didn’t get a good look at the assailants, who fled after the shots were fired. Like most homes south of Ventura Boulevard in Encino, the driveway was lined with bushes and shrubs, which limit visibility. The house had an alarm but no gate.

“It went down so quick that by the time she was able to react it was over,” the detective said.

Hollywood and his partner, Detective Larry Kagele, said the couple were returning from dinner at a Woodland Hills restaurant about 11:15 p.m., when two men stepped out from behind a storage rack in the driveway, where Faith keeps two restored Oldsmobile 442s, a vintage Cadillac, a limousine, a late-model red Camaro and a brand new Jeep Cherokee.

Faith was walking toward the front door, which is flanked by lily ponds. The woman was locking the car when she looked up and saw Faith being confronted by two men. Faith dropped and broke the portable telephone he was carrying.

The men kicked and punched Faith during a struggle for the gun, and two shots were fired. One hit Faith; the other passed through the Cherokee, Kagele said.