Home invasion ends in arrests

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- A man and a teenage boy were arrested Tuesday after

a botched home-invasion robbery that ended when one of the suspect’s

surrendered at a home where he had been holding two women and a man at

gunpoint, authorities said.

Enrique Alvarez, 21, was being held on $150,000 bail Tuesday evening

in a county jail on suspicion of robbery and kidnapping and an

unidentified 16-year-old boy was in custody at Juvenile Hall on the same

charges following a chain of events that began when the two allegedly

stormed into a home in the 11300 block of Elkwood Street.

Two women and a man in the home were unharmed. A fourth victim

received a minor head injury, police said.

Burbank police were tipped to the robbery when a man walked into the

Lockheed Federal Credit Union and told a teller that a gunman waiting in

his car had threatened to kill him if he did not withdraw $5,000. The

unidentified man also told the teller that a second suspect was holding

his mother and girlfriend hostage at his home in the 11300 block of

Elkwood Street in North Hollywood, said Burbank Police Lt. Don Brown.

The teller phoned Burbank police at 11:17 a.m., prompting a massive

response in which more than 15 marked and unmarked police cars responded

and set up a perimeter around the credit union at Hollywood Way and

Vanowen Street, Brown said.

At about 11;40 a.m., undercover detectives walked over to the teenage

boy as he sat in the car and arrested him without incident.

“The detectives said he was shocked,” Brown said. “He didn’t even know

they were there.”

Underneath the driver’s seat, the detectives found a loaded 9 mm

automatic handgun, Brown said.

The victim was treated at the credit union by Burbank paramedics for a

cut on his forehead he received when one of the suspects pistol whipped

him while they were ransacking his home, police said.

Meanwhile, Los Angles police officers were arriving at the North

Hollywood home where the hostages were being held. In the time since the

male victim was taken to the bank, another man apparently arrived at the

home and was taken hostage along with the two women.

With officers surrounding the house, a police helicopter ordered the

suspect to surrender, which he did without further incident, Burbank

police said.

The man who was taken to the bank told police the gunmen forced their

way into his house around 9:30 a.m. as he opened the door to let his

mother in. The two suspects allegedly ransacked the house and demanded to

know where the man kept his money.

At one point, dissatisfied with what they had found, the gunmen

allegedly told the three victims they had 15 rounds of ammunition and

threatened to shoot them, starting from the bottom of their bodies and

working their way up to top, said Burbank Sgt. Wade Taylor.