Men Posing as Police Rob Couple of $20,000

Identifying themselves as police officers, two men burst into a Port Hueneme home Monday morning, terrorized its occupants and robbed them at gunpoint, authorities said.

The men made off with more than $20,000 in cash and jewelry, most of which was stored in a safe inside a bedroom closet.

About 7:20 a.m., the men, dressed in black jackets with chest patches, knocked on the unlocked front door of the victims’ home in the 1700 block of North 6th Place and entered, saying they had a search warrant. One of the men displayed a badge and brandished a small revolver, police said.

One robber put his gun to the head of a 64-year-old man and forced him into a bathroom. The pair then removed his 63-year-old wife from a shower, allowed her to dress and forced her at gunpoint to open the safe, according to police.

The couple’s 18-year-old son was made to stay in his bed. A fourth family member, the woman’s elderly father, was in a side yard and unaware of the robbery, which authorities said took no more than 10 minutes.

While the teenager and his parents were kept out of sight, the men ransacked the small house and quickly found the safe in an open closet. Port Hueneme Police Det. Christina Alvarez said there was initial speculation the robbers knew about the safe beforehand, but she added that finding it could have been chance.

“It would have been easy for them to have noticed that the safe was there,” Alvarez said. “They didn’t just go directly to the safe.”

Sgt. Ken Dobbe said he would not rule out that the house was targeted because of the safe.

“I just can’t see this house being picked out of the blue,” said Dobbe, adding that it was similar to many other homes in the neighborhood. “It’s a cookie-cutter house.”

Though a daylight home-invasion robbery is unusual, Alvarez said the robbers could have chosen the time because they knew the residents would be awake and that the door would probably be unlocked.

The first robber is described as a Latino, 26 to 30 years old, 5 foot 6 to 5 foot 9 and weighing 180 pounds. Police say he has black hair, blue eyes and is light-skinned and cleanshaven. He spoke to the victims, who are also Latino, in both Spanish and English.

The second robber is described as a Latino with light brown hair who was wearing a black baseball cap. He spoke only English.

The weapon was a dark-colored revolver of unknown caliber. No vehicle was seen.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Port Hueneme police at 986-6530 or Ventura County Crime Stoppers at 385-TALK (8255).

Impersonating a law enforcement official is not an uncommon ruse for criminals to gain entry to a residence, but Det. Alvarez said it is unusual in Port Hueneme.

“We’ve never had one like this before,” she said.

Alvarez said residents should expect officers to be in full uniform or to at least display proper identification, including a badge with the city name on it and plastic photo identification.

Though some of the robbers’ clothing resembled a uniform, “the rest of their clothing wasn’t even close to what a police officer wears,” she said.

Last week, a man was cited in Santa Paula for dressing as a fire official and selling overpriced fire extinguishers to local merchants.

The county’s most recent home-invasion robbery was in Santa Paula in May, when an apartment resident was wounded by a shot fired through the front door.