An Encino woman came face-to-face with four strangers inside her own home overnight, after the men slipped through a rear door in her backyard while her children were also in the house. LAPD officers were called to the 4900 block of Edgerton Avenue at about 11:15 p.m. for a reported break-in, and the four men fled before officers arrived, leaving behind no reported injuries and, so far, no confirmed items taken.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the four men were dressed in black and left the scene in a vehicle investigators believe was a Mercedes sedan. LAPD has not released further details about the vehicle or the suspects, and police say the break-in remains under investigation. Notably, there was no apparent property theft from the home, a detail that sets this incident apart from many of the burglaries that have plagued the neighborhood.
A Neighborhood Already on Edge
The Edgerton Avenue confrontation lands in a San Fernando Valley community that has spent more than a year bracing for exactly this kind of encounter. In July 2025, Encino residents Robin Kaye, a music supervisor for American Idol, and her husband Thomas DeLuca were fatally shot in their White Oak Avenue home after walking in on an intruder during a burglary, according to the LAPD. A 22-year-old Encino resident was later arrested and charged with two counts of murder following a welfare check.
That killing pushed LAPD’s West Valley Division to launch a dedicated crime suppression strategy in Encino, deploying discretionary evening patrols and coordinating with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Burglary/Robbery Taskforce, the department said in a statement. The unease has only deepened since: in April, Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell ordered a high-visibility patrol surge across the Valley, sending in mounted units, air support and mobile license-plate readers after nine home break-ins were reported in a 10-day span, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Statistics Versus Fear on the Ground
City officials point to citywide numbers that tell a more reassuring story. Los Angeles reported in May that residential and commercial burglaries had dropped by more than 30% year-to-date compared to 2025, even as high-profile Valley break-ins contributed to more than 100 burglary-related arrests over a 30-day stretch, per CBS News. LAPD officials have acknowledged the disconnect between those falling citywide totals and the persistent anxiety felt in neighborhoods like Encino…