A family in San Bernardino County is still shaken and baffled after enduring a terrifying home invasion over the weekend.
The break-in occurred just after midnight Sunday in the 700 block of Concord Lane in Redlands.
Stanley Trammel told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson that the four to five masked men who kicked in a back door and set off the family’s home alarm system didn’t seem to care at all if there was anybody in the home.
According to Trammel, the lights in the home were on as his wife was downstairs watching television. The couple’s 21-year-old son was upstairs sleeping, and he was also upstairs.
“She told me that she heard a loud boom and then a second one because the door didn’t give the first time they kicked it,” he explained. “Then this guy came in and she screamed.”
Trammel says that the men, who were all dressed in black, forced his son out of bed, while he was trying to fight off one of the intruders with his cane while the man was pointing a gun at him.
As his wife attempted to get out of the way of the suspects, she tripped and hit her head.
The harrowing ordeal, according to Trammel, only lasted five to seven minutes and the suspects never said a word to him during the invasion.
It’s unclear what the intruders may have been looking for and why the family’s home was targeted, but Trammel says there’s also another puzzling aspect of the chilling experience.
“We think that they were actually looking in the bedrooms, which are all upstairs,” he said. “Nobody made any demands about ‘give us your jewelry’ or ‘give us your money.’ They didn’t take anything. I’m more confused than anything else because we don’t know why.”
A neighbor’s surveillance cameras show the moment police arrive after the suspects had fled.
Officers with the Redlands Police Department set up a perimeter and searched the area but came up emptyhanded.
Some residents on the quiet street say they’re now on edge and are considering adding more to their existing security systems.
“These are things that we just don’t expect to happen, and we hope never to happen, but when it happens right in front of your house, that is way too close for comfort,” neighbor Beatrice Martins told KTLA. “That is what, frankly, has made us reconsider all of our safety protocols around the house.”
Trammel’s wife was taken to the hospital and has since been released while she’s recovering from the fall and blow to her head.
So far, police have not released any suspect descriptions or made any arrests. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact the Redlands Police Department.
