VENICE (CBSLA.com) — A Venice woman woke up in her bed to the shock of seeing a man, standing over her and pointing a gun at her.
The incident is the latest in a series of burglaries in the area between Lincoln Blvd. and the beach.
“I just saw sort of a silhouette, kind of above me,” victim Maya Sahafi said. “I must not have been able to stop screaming, because he kept telling me to quiet down.”
The suspect demanded money and stole Sahafi’s phone. LAPD says this is one of 18 burglaries in Venice over the past week within a 10 mile radius. More than half happened in cases where victims left their doors and windows unlocked.
“When they know this, they’ll return to the neighborhoods that are commonly left unsecured,” Detective Robyn Salazar said. “So we need to take control of our neighborhood and lock things up.”
Sahafi says that, when she had calmed down, she noticed that the suspect appeared to be a young teenager.
“I just got worried about him, and I asked him if he was okay,” Sahafi recalled. “And he said ‘no, I’m not’.”
Sahafi says the suspect then put down the gun, handed Sahafi her phone back, and left. The suspect did, however, leave with her laptop.
Police say that, since there appears to be no security video of the suspect, they cannot be certain the robberies are all related.
Darin says
Neighbors! Join your community Neighborhood Watch group now! If you don’t have one, start one! The recent spate of crime in our Venice neighborhood seems to ramping up, not abating! Here’s a great list of things you can do right now to help deter and prevent crime in your neighborhood:
http://abbotkinneytriangle.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/011915_ThingsWeCanDoToProtectOurselves.pdf