Robbers Attack Boy, Then Set House on Fire

Two men who claimed they were having car trouble robbed a Sunland home early Monday, tying up a 13-year-old boy who lived there and leaving him on the lawn after they set the house ablaze, police said.

There were no injuries in the fire in the 10500 block of Langmuir Avenue, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Collis estimated damage from the fire at $60,000.

The intruders made off with a video camera, a videocassette recorder and a micro-cassette recorder, among other items, but left two television sets, according to the boy’s father, John Mathews.

The boy, who was home alone while his father worked a night shift as an electrician, was awakened by a knock at the door sometime after 2 a.m., the youth said.

When the boy heeded the men’s request for help and turned to get a cordless phone, one of them entered the house, tackled him, covered his mouth, wrists and eyes with tape and threw him on the living room couch, authorities said. The boy said he then heard the men shuffling through the house and smelled gasoline.

“I had gotten free inside the house by twisting my wrist around to get my hand out,” the boy said said after the ordeal. “When they brought me outside, I undid the tape.” The boy said he then went to a neighbor’s house and dialed 911.

Firefighters arrived at 2:48 a.m., authorities said.

“I was scared because I thought they might take me to their hide-out or something,” the boy said later Monday morning. “I learned not to answer the door.”

Police are investigating whether Mathews’ leaving the boy alone constitutes child endangering, said Nancy Lyon of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.