A woman claims that her friends were tied up with zip ties during a home invasion robbery while she was asleep.
The robbery took place in the 400 block of Heliotrope Drive in East Hollywood around 4 a.m. Tuesday, preliminary information indicates. At least six people were inside the residence – which is said to be an Airbnb rental – at the time.
The victims, a group of friends who traveled to L.A. from Minnesota, were staying on the first floor of what appears to be a multi-unit building.
According to the woman, only identified as Payne, she was asleep on the lower level of the house when she awoke to the sound of one of her friends screaming.
“I heard really loud footsteps upstairs, and then I heard one of my friends scream,” she said. “My husband opened the door to check and noticed [the suspects] were standing there…we realized that it was not one of [the friends] and we were being robbed.”
Payne and others were able to escape through a window and call police, but by the time officers arrived, the five masked suspects, who were said to be armed with rifles and handguns, had fled the area.
They were able to get away with most of the group’s belongings, including purses, phones and bags, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
No official description of the suspects was released, and no injuries were reported.
A woman who lives next door to the building where the robbery took place told KTLA 5’s Ellina Abovian that she believes short-term rentals are having a negative impact the neighborhood she’s called home for 27 years.
“All these buildings are destroying L.A. and it’s sad to me…because there are no real people living here, just people visiting,” Alma Noubleau said. “Sometimes they are noisy, and I don’t really like it because you don’t know what type of people [are staying there].”
The investigation into the robbery remains ongoing.