Gated Community Stunned by Carjacking

A mother and her infant were carjacked outside their home in a gated community Tuesday night in the city the FBI earlier this year deemed the safest in the nation.

Police said Susan Smith, 36, and her baby were unharmed in the incident, which reportedly occurred at about 7:10 p.m. outside their home on Double Eagle Drive, in the city’s Wood Ranch subdivision.

It was the first carjacking in Wood Ranch, according to police, and the 10th carjacking citywide since 1994. Another carjacking occurred on the other end of Simi Valley late last month, but a suspect was arrested and police were not drawing any connection between the two incidents.

Smith was getting out of her 1996 Buick in front of her home when a dark-tone Mazda sedan pulled up and two armed Latino males in their late 20s or early 30s got out, according to police.

Smith told police the suspects approached her and took her purse and car keys. One of the suspects removed the infant from the car at Smith’s request. Two additional suspects appeared. The four suspects drove off, followed by the driver of the Mazda, according to police.

Police later found the Buick ransacked and abandoned at a nearby shopping center parking lot. They had not made any arrests as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s a shocker,” said neighbor Henry Miller, a 10-year resident of the neighborhood. “Basically, we feel perfectly safe here. Young women do their walking, running and jogging by themselves and they feel perfectly safe.”

Police spokesman Sgt. Bob Gardner said the carjacking shows that no neighborhood is immune from crime--even one protected by gates. “Simi is statistically the safest city in America, and Ventura County is one of the safest counties in the country,” he said. “But crime can and does occur anywhere.”