Local detectives who began investigating two home invasions reported in the Fair Oaks Ranch community of Canyon Country on Wednesday evening are already looking at a surveillance video offered up by a neighborhood resident.
“Within a couple of minutes of the Nixle going out about the home invasions, we had someone call with a video of a dark sedan in the area,” Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, said Thursday morning.
“Each bit of information we receive is like a piece of the puzzle,” she said.
At approximately 9 p.m., deputies were dispatched to a home on Blue Aspen Lane for initial reports of an attempted home invasion.
A couple in their 60s was having dinner when the back slider glass door was shattered.
Four male suspects are reported to have broken the rear sliding window of the home while the homeowners were inside eating dinner, according to Sgt. Chris Voda with the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
“I believe they thought the house was empty and not occupied,” Voda said.
Detectives reported that the only description they had of the suspects was that they were black men.
The victims ran out of the house by the front door, yelling for help. They were restrained, however, by one or more of the suspects, who wrestled with them briefly before fleeing in a dark blue sedan, according to Voda.
Nothing was taken and the homeowner sustained minor injuries, Voda said.
As of 10:45 p.m., deputies were still canvassing the neighborhood and searching for the suspects.
The couple suffered minor injuries, scrapes and cuts, Miller said.
About two hours after the first break-in, just before 11 p.m., another home invasion was reported on Nearview Drive, also in Canyon Country, where the suspect brandished a firearm, Miller said.
The victim, described as a woman in her 70s, was in bed when she heard the sound of glass breaking.
A suspect, described by detectives as a black man, allegedly entered her room, pointed a handgun at her and directed her not to move.
The victim complied. She could hear two additional suspects ransacking the house.
After several minutes, the three suspects fled the location with several items that were stolen from the residence.
Although no items were taken during the first incident, items were taken during the second, according to sheriff’s officials.
The woman was not physically injured, Miller said.
No additional description of the suspects had been released as of Thursday morning.
Sheriff’s officials are asking anyone with surveillance cameras in the area, or anyone who may have been driving in the area near the time of the crimes, to contact the SCV Sheriff’s Station Detective Bureau at 661-255-1121, ext. 5146. Video footage may be emailed to [email protected].
Anonymous tips can be submitted to www.LACrimeStoppers.org, or by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Signal staff writers Emily Alvarenga and Jim Holt contributed to this report.
