SAN DIEGO (CBS 8/CNS) - Homes in the Sabre Springs and Carmel Mountain Ranch neighborhoods were broken into early Thursday and investigators were working to determine if the same three suspects carried out those and similar recent break-ins in Rancho Bernardo and Sorrento Valley.
"They shouted at me, 'Don't move. Don't turn around. Put your hands up,'" said Josh Cheng, as he described what happened Thursday morning as three armed men woke him up.
The latest home-invasion robbery occurred in the 14000 block of Breezeway Place near Cedarhurst Lane around 5:20 a.m.
Three suspects, one of whom was armed with a gun, somehow gained entry to the home, tied up three men with a 2-year-old child inside the home and escaped with some of their property, San Diego police Officer Frank Cali said.
"I pretty much tried to stay as calm as possible so I didn't make them more anxious than they had to be," said Cheng.
Jennifer Clark said she was sound asleep when around 5 a.m., she heard a loud knock on her door.
It was her neighbor's son. He was not dressed and had zip ties broken on his hand.
He pounded the door and said, "can you call 911? They took our phones. We got robbed and we've been tied up for an hour."
He was visibly shaking, according to Clark.
Police said the three victims, a father and his tow sons, were purposely awakened by the suspects.
The break-in was about five miles from the Sabre Springs neighborhood, where a trio of thieves entered a home in the 11300 block of Spring Meadow Lane through a side door around 2:45 a.m. Police said one suspect was armed during that robbery as well.
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The suspects in the first robbery Thursday morning were only said to have been wearing dark clothing and hooded sweatshirts, according to the officer.
Cali said it was not immediately clear whether the suspects were the same men wanted in connection with a home invasion robbery in the 11400 block of Aliento Court in Rancho Bernardo Friday and the weekend before in the 10700 block of Passerine Way in Sorrento Valley.
In both earlier cases, the thieves got into the home through a side door with no signs of forced entry, threatened residents with a gun and bound
them, authorities said.
Police said there was a third incident where a house was robbed just down the block from the second home invasion in Carmel Mountain Ranch, but no one was home at the time.