3 Armed Men, Posing as Police, Rob Family at Home

Three armed men posing as police officers burst into a Pacoima home Sunday evening, waved their pistols around and ordered a startled family of four to lie face down on the floor before they made off with more than $2,000 in cash, jewelry and other personal items, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Wearing navy-blue Windbreaker-type jackets with the word “POLICE” printed on their backs, two of the three men broke into the Terra Bella Street home through a back door about 8:30 p.m. Sunday and identified themselves as LAPD officers, said Detective Ray Velez. The home is less than a quarter-mile from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division station.

Inside the two-bedroom home, Velez said, the robbers told the stunned family they were conducting a police raid. The men ordered the parents and their two sons, ages 5 and 7, to lie on their stomachs with their hands clasped behind their backs, then ransacked the house.

After the robbers left, Velez said, the family stayed in that position for almost an hour before they finally decided to call the real police.

“This kind of crime doesn’t happen often,” said Velez, “but it’s easy to see how it can happen. These guys took advantage of a family’s trust of the police.”

No arrests have been made.

According to Lt. Steve Keyser of the Foothill Division, the jackets used by the robbers resemble those LAPD officers often use to identify themselves when working out of uniform, as they do when detectives serve search warrants.

Velez said that because those jackets are only made available to officers during working hours, it would be difficult for someone to steal them.

“[The robbers] probably made the jackets themselves,” he said. “All they needed were emblems that could lead people to believe that they were the police.”