Sherman Oaks woman escapes after robbers invade her home and tie her up

Three armed suspects invaded a woman’s home, tied her up and robbed her home in Sherman Oaks on Tuesday night, police said. The woman managed to escape, but so did the robbers, unfortunately.

The crime was reported to have occurred around 11 p.m. in the 3900 block of Ventura Canyon Avenue. Police said that the victim, a woman in her mid-30s who lives alone with her dog, opened her front door to check if she’d left her garage door open.

Standing on her front porch were three men between 5-feet-10 and 6 feet tall dressed in dark clothing and ski masks and armed with guns.

The suspects forced the woman into her home, where they tied her up and started ransacking her house, police said. At one point she was moved to a back room.

She was able to loosen the ties on her hands and then untie her feet. She escaped out a back window and fled to a neighbor’s house, where she called police around 11:40 p.m.

But by the time law enforcement arrived, the thieves were gone.

The men stole more than $60,000 worth of property including jewelry, a watch, a couple laptop computers and a high-end purse.

“Based upon the investigation it seems like they’ve done this before,” said Lt. Jim Gavin of the Van Nuys Police Station. “I don’t think it’s happened in the San Fernando Valley, because I checked with surrounding areas, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t done it somewhere else.”

Gavin said that the area where the robbery took place is relatively isolated. The home has a long driveway and sits by itself. Police are seeking security video from neighboring houses and commercial establishments that might have captured the suspects entering or exiting the neighborhood.

“There are only a few ways to get in and out of that area,” he said. “It would have been difficult for them to escape without being seen.”

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