ORANGE COVE, Calif. (KMPH) -
"They woke her up, in bed asleep with a gun in her face," Orange Cove Police Chief Frank Steenport said.
Steenport says that's exactly what happened to a 25-year-old Orange Cove woman around 11 Tuesday morning.
"They were quiet. I didn't hear a car screech or anything," Brendy Valencia, who lives across the street from the victim, said.
Neighbors were shocked to hear what had happened.
Police say two or three men waited until the woman's parents left for work and then barged right in, masked and armed with a gun.
"When the parents went off to work, they didn't lock the doors. And the robbers basically walked right in," Steenport said.
The thugs tied the woman up using cords from electronics in the home and got away with a computer and some cameras.
"It's unreal. You're home; you think you're safe at home. For somebody to just walk right in there, hold you at gunpoint, it's unbelievable that they would do that," Valencia said.
The home invasion happened in a newer neighborhood in Orange Cove and neighbors say that's why they moved there, because it's safe and quiet.
Police say the victims may have been targeted because they run a business in town.
But it still makes neighbors feel uneasy.
"There's only so much you can do. You can't really just protect yourself from (someone) breaking into the window and holding you at gunpoint. But you do what you can," Valencia said.
"If you have nice things, there's a segment of the population that will never work for these things," Steenport said. "We shouldn't have to live in a fortress. But be aware that in bad times there are bad people."
Aside from being shaken up, the woman home during the invasion wasn't hurt.
Police don't have much to go on as far as a description of the men they're looking for.
If you have any information, you're asked to call the Orange Cove Police Department at (559) 626-5112.
