I Got Blinded-Folded, Tied-Up and Robbed.

This stuff isn’t supposed to happen to you. It’s all for Lifetime and those other people — I always thought — but alas the resounding cliché of “it can happen to anyone, even you” simply resonates from hollow ears. I sit back today reliving yesterday trying to materialize it as something that really did happen to me. Even now, after the police, the investigation and the follow-up media, it still feels surreal. Since we declined to comment to the media, I’ll give you guys a quick synopsis of what happened from my perspective yesterday:

12:30pm: I get a phone call from my parents asking if I am coming home for lunch today. I tell them yes and that they should expect me leaving work at around 1pm.

12:54pm: I casually leave my desk on my way home for a nice lunch with the fam.

1:15pm: I arrive at my house. I ring the door bell. No answer. Peculiar I thought. I knock and ring again. No answer. I try and look inside, I notice something black scurry. Odd. I ring and knock again. No answer. I grab my cell phone and call my dad’s cell phone. No answer. I call the house line. No answer. I go around and punch in the five-digit security code for the garage door. The garage door creeks up… I notice my parents car is inside. What is going on? I start walking into my garage — cell phone in one hand, DVD in the other and backpack lounged over my shoulder — I walk in and I see two guys. They were expecting me. They grab me and throw me down. They throw a blanket over my head and tie me up. I realize that my parents are also tied up in the same room. They tell us to be quiet and everything is going to be okay.

1:30: The armed robbers do their thing and leave. We kind of get up slowly, untie ourselves and call the police.

Here is the article from the OC Register:

Robbers show little charity toward Mission Viejo victims

Police seek men who posed as solicitors, took cash, electronics from home.

By JENNIFER MUIR
The Orange County Register

MISSION VIEJO – Three armed men posing as charity workers forced their way into a home, tied up three residents, and fled with cash and electronics Thursday, officials said.

The home-invasion robbery occurred at about 2 p.m. in the 26700 block of Strafford, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.

None of the victims was harmed. Police did not release their names, and a woman who answered the telephone at the home declined to comment.

The robbery began when one of the men showed up at the door and told the resident he was collecting money for a breast-cancer charity. The resident had returned from making a business transaction at a Lake Forest bank, Amormino said.

“Once he opened the door … three men rushed him,” Amormino said.

They used electrical cords collected from inside the house to tie up the man, a woman and another person described only as a “young” man. Amormino would not say how the victims were related.

The men stole a DVD player, other electronics and an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing in a blue 1980s Chevrolet S-10 with a camper shell driven by a fourth man.

One victim freed himself after 10 minutes and dialed 911.

“We’re not sure if they were picked at random and followed home from the bank, or if it was a well-planned robbery,” Amormino said. “This is a quiet neighborhood. It’s rare for something like this to happen here.”

Still, he warned residents to be cautious when opening the door to strangers and to ask for identification from solicitors.

One suspect is described as a black man in his 20s, taller than 6 feet with short hair and a large build. He was wearing a dark shirt, jeans and beige Sketcher boots.

The second man is black and in his 20s, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a short beard. He was wearing a black shirt and jeans.

Details about the other intruder and the getaway driver were not available.

Anybody with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at (714) 628-7170.

Now that think about it, this would have been an elaborately planned April’s Fools joke but alas, it would have been too hard to involve the OC Register, ABC News and LA Times — unless of course you believe I have resources like that. But since doubts still exist, you can find a link to the official OC Register article here (if you need to login, use cranium/seethe).