Patients’ Christmas Cash Robbed

An employee returning to the Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center with $5,000 in Christmas-shopping funds for the facility’s mentally ill patients was robbed by two men Thursday, authorities said.

The robbery left the patients with no money to buy gifts. “As it stands, there’s no Christmas for these people,” said Todd Polk, the facility’s clinical director.

“The reactions are very different,” Polk said. “Some are in tears. Some have become very violent.”

The robbery occurred just after 11 a.m. in the center’s parking lot in the 12200 block of Foothill Boulevard, said Officer Frank Cerny of the Los Angeles Police Department.

He said the two men hit Andy Weed, 22, on the head to confiscate the cash.

Weed was treated at Sylmar Medical Center and released, authorities said.

The rehabilitation center is a privately owned facility that operates with some government financial assistance, Polk said. About 205 patients with severe and chronic mental illnesses between 18 and 64 years old are supervised by about the same number of staffers.

Weed had gone to the bank to cash Social Security checks for about 80 patients who were going to use the money today to go Christmas shopping at a local store where the patients get discounts.

Christmas shopping is one of the few occasions when the patients, most of whom require constant supervision, are allowed to leave the locked facilities, Polk said.

He added that most of the patients are in the facility because they have no relatives nearby. They typically go Christmas shopping for themselves and the staff helps them wrap the gifts.

One of the robbers was described as a Latino in his 20s, standing 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing about 185 pounds with a mustache, Cerny said. He wore a burgundy-and-white shirt and baggy blue jeans.

The second was described only as male, according to police. The robbers sped off in a 1990 green pickup truck.

“It will be sad this Christmas,” Polk said. “For the staff as well as the patients.”