Self-Defense Skills Save Couple From Street Robbery

A San Fernando Valley couple credit the self-defense course they took two years ago with enabling them to fight off two bandits who attempted to rob them in an alley off Ventura Boulevard Saturday night.

The man and woman, both 40, were leaving Mimo’s Patio Cafe in the 18600 block of Ventura Boulevard, where they had dined with two friends after a movie. The group was strolling to a parking lot behind a theater when the robbers pounced on them, said Officer Sandra Castello of the Los Angeles Police Department.

As one couple watched from a few feet away, the bandits walked up behind the second couple, police said. One held a gun on the man while the second tried to steal the woman’s purse, said the male victim, who asked not to be identified.

But the woman, who along with her husband had taken training to deal with such encounters, held on tight to her purse and kicked the assailant in the groin with her right knee, Castello said.

Seeing the scuffle, the armed bandit started pistol-whipping the husband, striking him at least five times, Castello said.

“I didn’t know what was going on until the guy hit me three or four times,” the male victim said.

Meanwhile, the couple’s friends had retreated about 30 yards behind a parked car and used a hand-held portable phone to call the 911 emergency number, Castello said.

“When I was able to get a hold of the gun hand that was hitting me, I was able to defend myself a little bit,” the husband said. “It was funny, it was like everything was going in slow motion, and the things I was taught almost two years ago were coming back.

“I’ll be calling them on Monday to sign up” for another course, he said. The couple took self-defense classes at Model Mugging Inc. in Tarzana.

The husband was able to keep the gunman’s hand away from him and used his free hand to strike the assailant.

The bandits gave up the attack, fled to a waiting car parked along Yolanda Avenue and were last seen heading north on that street, Castello said.

Both victims were taken to Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, where they were treated and released early Sunday. The man suffered head lacerations that required stitches, authorities said. His wife was unhurt.

The suspects are described as two male Latinos in their late teens to mid-20s, Castello said. The gunman is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, about 25 years old with brown hair and weighing about 180 pounds. The second man was described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, about 170 pounds and with black hair, Castello said.