Pair Rob, Burn Home After Duping Boy, 13

Under the guise of using the telephone to report car trouble, two men entered and robbed a Sunland home early Monday, binding a 13-year-old boy who lived there, then leaving him on the lawn and setting the house on fire, police said.

The boy, who was home alone while his father worked a night job, was not injured in the blaze on Langmuir Avenue, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Damage was estimated at $60,000, Collis said.

The intruders made off with a video camera, a videocassette recorder and a micro-cassette recorder, among other items, but left two television sets in the house, according to the boy’s father, John Mathews, who works nights as a Metropolitan Transit Authority electrician.

So far, the Fire Department’s arson unit--which is investigating the incident--has no suspects, authorities said.

In an interview after the incident, the boy said he was awakened by a knock at the door sometime after 2 a.m.

When he agreed to help the men and went to get a cordless phone for them, one of the men entered the house, tackled the boy, bound his mouth, wrists and eyes with tape and threw him on the living room sofa, the boy said. He said he heard the men going through the house and then smelled gasoline.

“I had gotten free inside the house by twisting my wrist around to get my hand out,” said the boy, whose name was withheld because of his age. “When they brought me outside, I undid the tape.” The boy then went to a neighbor’s house and called 911.

Firefighters answered the call 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. “I learned not to answer the door.”

Police are also investigating whether Mathews’ leaving his son alone at night constitutes child endangerment, said Nancy Lyon, juvenile coordinator for the Foothill detective division.

But Mathews defended his actions, saying he used to pay friends to care for the boy at night but could no longer afford to do so.

“How many people have left their children with 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds as baby-sitters?” he said. “I would have felt better if I wouldn’t have done that, but he’s capable of taking care of himself under normal circumstances. In actuality, he did very good in this situation too.”