A Manhattan Beach couple was tied up and beaten while four men robbed their house on Morningside Drive and 1st Street two nights before Thanksgiving.
Fred and Kathy Stanger were coming back from playing poker at Hustler Casino around 10:15 p.m. when they noticed the screens of their windows on the ground.
“As soon as we came in the garage, we saw the screens on the floor,” said Fred, 72. “We sensed something right away. We knew we had a burglary.”
Fred’s attention was grabbed by one of their two Schnauzer dogs, who was in the kitchen and running toward the front door. Afraid that the door might be open and the dog would escape, Fred followed. As soon as he walked into the kitchen, he was attacked by two of the men.
“I entered the kitchen and before I could turn around, they jumped on me,’ he said.
They hit and kicked him as he tried to fight them off.
“It was the first beating I’ve taken since high school,” he said Wednesday afternoon, with bruises visible on his lip and cheeks and a cut on his left ear.
The robbers tied Kathy up with Fred’s old elastic suspenders and tied him up with duct tape. They tore off the couple’s rings, including a diamond ring from Kathy’s mother. They moved them around the house for two and a half hours with guns held to their heads as they forced them to open a safe and demanded to know where any money was kept.
“It was the normal shit: ‘We’re going to kill you, shut the fuck up,’” said Kathy.
“It was just like a movie. I thought, is this really the way I’m going to go out, by getting shot in the head?”
Although the robbers wore hoods that obscured most of their faces, the couple guessed they were in their 20s or early 30s. They took the couple’s wallets, jewelry and 10 guns, Fred estimated. They didn’t take any electronics, blank checks or a pile of savings bonds that fell on the floor.
Before leaving, one of the robbers held a gun to Fred’s face for 15 seconds and stared him down.
“I don’t know what his reasons were,” said Fred. “Perhaps to terrify me, which was successful. He told us if we moved he was going to kill us.”
Once the attackers were gone, the couple wriggled out of their ties and called 911. The police arrived in under a minute, with paramedics close behind. Although Fred’s face was covered in blood, he didn’t want to go to the hospital. Then came the detectives and forensics experts, who scoured the house for fingerprints and DNA until 5:30 a.m.
Officers began interviewing neighbors immediately, none of whom saw or heard anything, according to the couple.
Police determined that the robbers entered through a low-level window. The Stangers noted ruefully that they had just had new double-paned windows put in.
“Double-paned doesn’t make any noise when it breaks,” said Fred. They speculated that was why the neighbors didn’t hear anything.
The couple, who has lived in their house since 1993, doesn’t know why they were targeted.
“We’re very private people,” said Fred.
They are also meticulous about locking all their doors and windows every time they leave the house, just as they did this time.
Fred, who woodcarves in the garage, suspects someone may have noticed his gun safe while walking by
“You can look in the garage and see I’m a shooter,” he said.
Among the guns taken were two which the couple’s fathers used in World War II, a 9-millimeter and a Sharpshooter Westlake.
“It’s going to be so sad,” said Fred. “Someone’s going to get murdered with one of my guns.”
On Wednesday, the couple was dealing with the aftermath of the invasion. Their daughter and grandson had come in the morning and helped them clean through the wreckage, but their bedroom still lay untouched, with clothes scattered all over the floor and drawers pulled out and emptied. They had been unable to find their cat and were afraid she was dead until they cleaned out an upstairs room and found her “trapped under a bunch of clothing.”
“She shot out like a bullet,” said Fred.
The broken windows were replaced and locksmiths worked throughout the day. Fred had only had one hour of sleep and was starting to feel the effects of the beating. He suspected that he had a broken rib and was having trouble hearing out of the ear that had been hit. Kathy had spent the morning at the bank freezing their accounts, and no unusual activity had occurred as of that afternoon.
Around 4 p.m., a stunned neighbor stopped by, saying he had been unable to fall asleep and was up at 11:30 p.m. the night before but had no idea what was happening nearby.
The couple doesn’t have a lot of hope that justice will be served.
“I’m completely deflated, like an empty balloon,” said Fred.
“They’ll never get caught,” added Kathy. “And if they do, nothing will happen.”
Fred said he was speaking about his experience to warn other people.
“Normally, I wouldn’t be talking to anyone, but I want to put the word out,” he said. “This community is so susceptible to this. People seem to be far away from it in their minds.”
He regrets having followed his dog into the kitchen.
“The way things are, you’ve got to be alert, vigilant, before you enter your house, get out of your car,” he said.
If he were to do it again, he would’ve stepped out of the house as soon as they noticed the screens on the floor and called 911.
“We’re not in a safe area,” he said. “And it’s getting worse. We’re sitting down here on an island with combat zones four miles away.”
