3 Robbers Terrorize Family, Rape Girl : Crime: Thieves ransack Diamond Bar home. They remain at large after early-morning chase.

Three armed robbers invaded and ransacked a Diamond Bar home early Friday, tying up five members of a family and raping a 13-year-old girl before escaping, authorities said.

The robbery began about 1:30 a.m. when the men--wearing ski masks and wielding guns--piled out of a stolen Ford Aerostar van and cut the telephone lines outside the home on Shaded Wood Road. They then stormed the house where the girl lived with her 12-year-old brother, her parents and grandparents, said Lt. Bob Knapp of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Knapp said the robbers ransacked the house for about an hour, stealing several pieces of valuable jewelry and loading stereo and other electronic equipment into the victims’ Dodge Caravan.

The three men fled in separate cars, taking the victims’ Lexus in addition to the two vans. After the robbers left, the victims freed themselves and called 911 from a neighbor’s house, Knapp said.

A patrol sergeant responding to the robbery call spotted all three vehicles in the parking lot of a mini-mall at the corner of Lycoming Street and Brea Canyon Road about three miles from the residence.

As the sergeant called for assistance, two assailants fled on foot and the Dodge Caravan sped out of the lot and was chased by deputies, Knapp said.

Deputies lost the two men in the residential neighborhood behind the mini-mall. A shotgun and some jewelry were recovered from the Lexus and the Aerostar left behind in the parking lot.

Knapp said deputies chased the Caravan along the Pomona Freeway until the driver tried to fake an exit from the freeway near Downtown Los Angeles and crashed into the center divider at about 3 a.m.

The man jumped out of the Caravan and ran north into the Downtown area. Deputies lost the man near the Los Angeles Mall near the Civic Center, Knapp said. The search for the man was called off at about 5 a.m.