3 Intruders Tie Up, Beat Irvine Residents

Three men broke into an Irvine home early Thursday, tied up its occupants and pistol-whipped them, then fled after failing to find many valuables, police said.

Four of the residents--a couple, one of the woman’s two teenage sons and an adult boarder--were hospitalized for minor injuries. The second teen was not injured.

Investigators said the home in the Greentree area of the city appeared to have been targeted by the assailants, but they could not say why.

“They don’t project wealth,” said Sgt. Leo Jones of the Irvine Police Department. “They live in a nice home but not an extremely wealthy-appearing home.”

Jones gave this account of the incident:

The three intruders broke in through a rear window of the home around 3 a.m. and confronted the 16-year-old boy. They took him at gunpoint into his mother’s bedroom, struck her on the head with the gun as she slept, and threw the teen onto the bed.

They then confronted the woman’s boyfriend, her 18-year-old son and the boarder, tied them up and demanded to know where the valuables were.

When told there was no safe in the house and few valuables, they pistol-whipped the residents, then ransacked the house. They left by 4:50 a.m., taking a personal computer and some jewelry.

Such incidents are rare in Irvine, authorities said.

“We’ve had probably half a dozen over the past eight or nine years,” police investigator Larry Montgomery said. “But they’re not commonplace.”

The intruders did not wear masks during the robbery, but identifying them and making composite sketches will be difficult, police said, because the home’s lights were out and the residents were covered with blankets for much of the time. Investigators said the trio may have left behind some socks and gloves that might provide clues to their identity.