Couple Robbed in Home

Hidden Hills is an affluent, gated community sheltered from the rest of the city, where Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies sometimes knock on homeowners’ doors to remind them to lock their garages.

But the comfortable security enjoyed by the nearly 2,000 residents here was ruptured this week following a home-invasion robbery early Tuesday.

Deputies say a masked gunman tied up a married couple, believed to be in their late 50s, and took a $100,000 worth of jewelry they had in a safe.

The gunman had crawled through a window of a house in the 24300 block of Rolling View Road about 3:30 a.m. He awakened the couple and forced them at gunpoint to open their safe.

The robber tied up the husband and wife and fled. The victims, who were not hurt, untied themselves and called deputies, but no arrests have been made, said Sgt. Martin Dailey.

“I don’t know if he came in a car. He escaped on foot,” Dailey said Wednesday.

The robbery follows a year in which the city had more burglaries than usual--just nine, but that’s more than double the four last year, with three more months to go.

But law enforcement authorities could not recall the last time there had been a robbery.

“An armed robbery is completely different than anything we’ve had,” said Lt. Ken Fowler at the Sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills station, which patrols Hidden Hills and nearby areas.

Because of the crime increase, city officials asked the sheriff’s station to organize crime-fighting sessions for residents.

Hidden Hills Mayor Ronald S. Berg said he has gotten many calls from residents, who are unaccustomed to crime in the community.

“The recent burglaries and home-invasion robbery are certainly unsettling for the community,” Berg said.

Possibly in a month, deputies will begin organizing sessions to teach Hidden Hills residents how to better protect themselves, said Lt. Jim Glazar.

“Residents are a little lackadaisical because it’s a gated community and in general the area has a very low crime rate,” he said.

Past or present residents of the exclusive community include actors Beau Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, entertainers Bob Eubanks and Tony Orlando, and comics Sinbad and Howie Mandel.