SANTA ANA / FOUNTAIN VALLEY : 2 Families Robbed as Armed Men Invade Their Homes

Two families living near each other were robbed by armed men who broke into their homes and escaped with valuables, police said Monday.

The home invasions occurred within an hour Sunday night in Fountain Valley and Santa Ana, and may have involved the same assailants, Fountain Valley Sgt. Dan Bean said. No one was injured in either robbery, police said.

The first robbery occurred in Fountain Valley about 11:45 p.m. when four assailants, two of them armed, broke into a house in the 11000 block of Begonia Avenue through a bathroom window, Bean said.

A gunman held a father of three children, ages 3 to 11, at gunpoint, while the other assailants ransacked the house. At one point, one robber left with the victim’s ATM card in the family car and attempted to withdraw money from the account at a nearby bank. He returned to the house empty-handed, Bean said, because he didn’t have the correct access number.

The assailants fled with jewelry and other items valued at $3,000, police said.

Bean said the Fountain Valley robbery may be linked to a similar incident in Santa Ana about an hour later. “When comparing the time elements, the closeness in area, we believe they might be connected,” he said.

The second robbery occurred about 12:25 a.m. when five assailants forced their way into a home in the 300 block of South Newhope Street.

The intruders herded five people into a bedroom and tied them up, Santa Ana Officer Robin Arostegui said.

One family member managed to untie herself while the robbers were ransacking the home and called police from another location, Arostegui said. By the time officers arrived, the robbers had fled with an undetermined amount of goods, she said.

Bean said that both the victims and assailants were Asian and that home invasion robbers often target people within their own community.