Women Bound, Jewelry and Cash Taken in Home Invasion

Four armed intruders wearing business suits tied up two women in an Oxnard home owned by a local restaurateur Tuesday afternoon before fleeing with cash and jewelry in a case that has detectives investigating possible ties to Asian gang activity.

The robbery in the 2200 block of Southern Hills Drive in the River Ridge development bore the markings of a home-invasion-style robbery that has grown popular among Asian gangs, Oxnard Police Det. Bernie Schmalhofer said.

When a woman answered the doorbell about noon, four Asian men pushed their way inside, authorities said. As one intruder held a gun, the others bound the women’s ankles and wrists and then searched the two-story house, police said.

James Lin, 25, who lives in the two-story, four-bedroom house, returned home 20 minutes after the robbery to find the two bound family members. He declined to say what was missing or to give the identities of the women.

Neither woman was injured, Police Sgt. Bob Camarillo said.

Tony Lin, owner of the house, also owns the popular China Square restaurant in Oxnard. Employees at the restaurant, which has been a mainstay in town for a decade, said the owner and his wife, Lucy, left the restaurant after hearing of the incident.

Family members who gathered at the neatly landscaped home late Tuesday afternoon declined to comment.

They “are pretty shaken up, but they are OK,” Camarillo said.

The first officers at the scene approached the home with guns drawn until they determined the intruders had fled.

Although there was no evidence to suggest the robbers responsible for Tuesday’s break-in were involved in prior holdups, authorities said similar crimes against Asian families have occurred in the county.

Robbers often target Asian immigrants because they think such families are more likely to have cash and valuables in their homes and are less likely to turn to the police for help, Schmalhofer said.

Oxnard Police Cmdr. Gary Amar said the robbery was carefully planned. He said the timing suggested the robbers wanted to strike when most people would not be home.

Amar said investigators had failed to find any witnesses in the neighborhood.

Leticia Manimtim, who lives next door, said she moved into the neighborhood to avoid that kind of crime. Until Tuesday, she said she felt safe. “Now I’m scared,” she said.

It’s been more than a year since the last home invasion in Oxnard, police spokesman David Keith said.

On Jan. 8, 2000, a masked man broke into a south Oxnard home, terrorized the two occupants and then locked them in a bedroom before ransacking the house and stealing jewelry and cash. The case remains unsolved, authorities said, and there is no evidence that the two robberies are related.

Countywide, home invasions have been more prevalent in areas patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department, according to that agency’s crime analysis unit.

In the first nine months of 2000--the most recent statistics available--there were eight home-invasion robberies, including four in unincorporated areas in the west county and two each in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

There were six such robberies in 1999, two in the unincorporated areas in the west county, two in Thousand Oaks, one in Camarillo and one in unincorporated parts of the east county.

Hughes is a Times staff writer and Wolcott is a correspondent.