Victims Report Robbers Take $1-Million Loot

Two men forced their way into a Tarzana home Thursday night, tied up a 19-year-old man and his mother and stole a large quantity of jewelry described by the victims as family heirlooms worth $1 million, Los Angeles police said.

The man, Fernando Montes, finally wriggled free of the bedsheets the intruders used to bind him to his mother and called police, Officer John Mann said. Neither was injured in the robbery, he said.

Police have no suspects, Mann said.

Montes answered a knock at the front door of his family’s home in the 19400 block of Rosita Street, in an exclusive part of Tarzana, at 5:40 p.m., Mann said.

A man with a handgun forced his way inside, made Montes lie on the ground, placed a woven basket over the young man’s head, then covered it with a pillow case, the officer said. The intruder then bound Montes’ hands and feet, Mann said.

When Montes’s mother, Rosa, 57, walked in about 15 minutes later, the man bound and tied her and her son back-to-back, Mann said.

The intruder was later joined by a second robber, who was not seen by the victims, Mann said.

The two ransacked the house until they found the key to a safe containing the jewelry, Mann said. They are believed to have fled in a white van.