Cash, Jewelry Taken in Home-Invasion Robbery in Oxnard

A man wearing a stocking mask broke into an Oxnard home early Friday and terrorized two women, while he ransacked the house and stole 150 pieces of jewelry and almost $1,000 in cash.

The 56-year-old resident was held with her 83-year-old aunt, first in a closet and then in a bedroom, after the man waved a gun and threatened to kill them.

“He was yelling the whole time and saying, ‘Which one of you wants to die first?’ ” the woman said.

The gunman broke in about 5 a.m. through a bathroom window, she said, and forced them into a closet. “He kept saying, ‘Look down, look down; don’t look at me,’ ” she said.

The women locked the closet from the inside, but the gunman knocked down the wood paneling and angrily steered them into a bedroom. He took about $400 in cash from the woman’s purse, about $200 from her aunt--who is visiting from Hawaii--and about $300 from a drawer.

“He was asking, ‘Where’s the safe?’ and I don’t have a safe,” the woman said.

She said she believed the man had been watching her, because he knew a lot about her house.

“I’ve always thought I’m pretty cautious,” she said. “I have bars and alarms on all my windows. But I remodeled, and there are two out-of-the-way windows that are hard to reach.”

The intruder came in through one of them.

He emptied drawers onto the floor, dumped out the victim’s purse and cut phone and cable wires, she said.

“My aunt was pushed around a little bit,” she said. Oxnard police said the older woman had a small abrasion on her arm.

Before the man fled about 5:50 a.m., he tied an extension cord around the bedroom door handles and attached them to the bathroom door. The women untangled the knot to escape.

“I guess I’m feeling numb but not scared,” said the woman, who lost rings and bracelets, one of which cost $1,600.

Oxnard police said they are investigating and have no suspects.

Oxnard Det. Michael Adair said home invasions in Ventura County are rare, with most robberies taking place in retail stores or on the street.

Oxnard Sgt. Marty Meyer said police do not know why the Oxnard house was targeted. The incident has not been linked to any other home invasions.

The most recent home invasion in Ventura County took place in Port Hueneme at the end of November. Two men, one with a gun, entered the residence of a single mother and her child, according to Cmdr. Jerry Beck with Port Hueneme police.

The men appeared to be looking for someone, and after searching the house left without taking any property, he said.

“We believe they got the wrong house,” Beck said.

“Home invasions aren’t that prevalent in this area.”

He said most of them happen when someone has information that there is money stored at a home.

“We anticipated having some of these around New Year’s, because people were withdrawing cash in preparation for Y2K,” he said. “We cautioned people and nothing came of it.”