House Set on Fire After Resident Robbed

A woman was robbed in her home at gunpoint by three people who stole jewelry and cash before forcing her into a bathroom and setting the residence on fire, authorities said.

The woman, a 49-year-old lawyer who lives with her family on Remont Circle, suffered minor back pain during the robbery Wednesday night but was not hospitalized, deputies said. The interior of the house sustained $10,000 in damage from the fire.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Bourke said the woman, whom authorities declined to identify, arrived home in her car about 10 p.m. and was approached in her driveway by a gunman wearing a ski mask.

The gunman forced the victim into the home, where he and two accomplices--a man and a woman--stole several pieces of jewelry, including rings, a bracelet and a watch the victim was wearing, along with cash kept in the house, Bourke said.

The amount of cash and the value of the jewelry were unknown.

The robbers then shut the victim inside an unlocked bathroom and lit a back room of the house on fire. The woman escaped after hearing the robbers leave, Burke said. She ran to a neighbor’s house, where she called deputies.

The woman’s family was out of town when the robbery occurred, Burke said. Deputies believe that she was followed home or that the robbers staked out the location, in a posh neighborhood.

“I don’t think at 10 o’clock at night it was an opportunistic crime,” Bourke said.