$800,000 Ring, Cash Taken in Granada Hills Robbery-Rape

A couple sharing their New Year’s holiday at home were attacked in the middle of the afternoon by gun-toting intruders who took a diamond ring worth an estimated $800,000. One then raped the woman in the couple’s bedroom, police said Tuesday.

The 47-year-old man and his 48-year-old wife answered a knock at the front door of their house on the 17600 block of Tuscan Drive about 1:30 p.m. Monday, said Lt. Bob Normandy. When they opened the door, two men pointed pistols at them and forced their way inside.

The men tied up the couple and used pairs of the couple’s socks as gloves so they wouldn’t leave fingerprints as they ransacked the house, Normandy said. During the hourlong ordeal, Normandy said, one of the robbers carried the woman upstairs to the master bedroom and raped her.

After the robbers left, the couple freed themselves and called police. Gone were several thousand dollars worth of jewelry, about $2,000 in cash, and a gold ring with three three-carat diamonds the couple said was worth $800,000, Normandy said.

Normandy said detectives are trying to find out if these robbers are new to the Valley, or if they have struck before. “There have been some other home invasion-type things,” Normandy said. “But this is rare for us.”

Police doubt the robbers are the same ones who committed at least 15 follow-home robberies in the San Fernando Valley around the holidays. Normandy said detectives are checking to see if the men fit the descriptions of those involved in other recent Valley robberies.

The wrought-iron gates to the two-story house were padlocked Tuesday, and residents peered through peepholes or windows before answering the door in this posh neighborhood.

“It frightens you. To think that people can walk into your house at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and point a gun at you,” said a 68-year-old man, who has lived on the block 20 years. “I didn’t sleep good last night, and I’m sure the others in the neighborhood didn’t either.”

Another Valley home was burglarized of a large amount of cash Monday afternoon while its residents were out. Thieves broke into a house on the 4400 block of Densmore Avenue in Encino and made off with a safe containing about $340,000 in cash, police said. They would not release any more information.