South Pasadena Woman Walks Into Active Home Invasion

The woman says she was tied up with a sheet and lamp cord and shoved into a bathroom

A woman walked into what she thought was her empty home only to find two men in the middle of a burglary.

Dianna Wong arrived to her South Pasadena home about 6:15 Friday when a strange man waiting inside threatened her with a knife.

"These two black men were standing in the hallway," Wong remembered. "One of them had a knife in his right hand."

The home has a security system with a sign in the front yard, but the alarm was not turned on.

"He says shut up, don't scream, and then he came towards me with his knife and grabbed my left wrist," Wong said. "The other one saw the ring on my hand, which was a diamond ring, and he started pulling it ... and the other guy pushed my head really hard down and says ‘don't look.’"

The robbers forced Wong to show them to all of her jewelry and money inside the home, and accused her of lying when she said she did not have a lot of money.

"He says, ‘you're lying, you're lying, where's your safe?" Wong detailed.

Local

Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.

1 found dead, 1 in critical condition after Pacoima garage fire

Watch for a SpaceX rocket set for Thursday evening launch from the California coast

The men forced her into a another bedroom and demanded she open her safe in front of them. Panicked and frightened, Wong forgot the code as she was on her hands and knees in front of them.

The men, angry at Wong, tied her arms behind her back with her face down, put a blanket over her and tied her legs together with a sheet and lamp cord.

"The younger guy said, ‘Just shoot her.’" Wong said.

Though she never saw a gun, Wong pleaded for her life before the men picked her up and put her inside of a bathroom, telling her to wait there until they left the house.

Wong heard the alarm beep and door close, untied herself and called 911.

"I can only imagine that they were probably as surprised to see her as she was to see them," said South Pasadena Police Capt. Jim Valencia, who says the likelihood of someone walking in on a home invasion is extremely rare.

Police are still searching for the men.

More Southern California Stories:

Contact Us