Dianna Wong's frightening encounter with the two burglars happened when she entered her home on the 1500 block of Camino Lindo just after 6 p.m. She had just dropped off her 10-year-old son at a friend's house.
"They saw me, and they came towards me with a knife and pulled me towards them, and one of them saw a ring on my finger and started pulling the ring off my finger, and I said, 'Let me do this,' and he pushed my head down and said, 'Don't look at us,'" said Wong.
Wong believes the men broke in through a rear sliding glass door. She said they pulled her toward her bedroom and demanded jewelry.
"I pulled out a bag and put the jewelry in, and he said, 'Now what about the money?' And I said, 'I don't have a lot of money with me unfortunately,' and he said, 'You're lying to us! You're lying,'" Wong recalled.
The suspects told her to open her safe, but she was so shaken that she couldn't remember the combination.
"They had me lie down, tied me up, tied my arms up and tied my legs up," said Wong.
The burglars finally left, dragging a roughly 50-pound floor safe out the door. Investigators estimate the suspects got away with more than $40,000 worth of jewelry.
"When I was on the ground and they kept accusing me of lying about the safe, the younger one said, 'Just shoot her,'" I thought to myself I never saw a gun. I got that flash for the first time in my life; is this the end? And I thought no this isn't it. It's not going to happen to me," said Wong.
The victim was not hurt. Officers responded to the scene but could not locate the suspects.
Neighbors are very concerned about the break-in.
"I didn't use the alarm for quite a long time, but I decided well, I'm going to put my alarm on," said Shlomo Nitzani.
"I think the neighborhood really needs to mobilize, be vigilant, whatever that takes," said Lourdes Birba.
Authorities described the suspects as two black men, approximately 30-35 years old. They were last seen wearing all dark clothing.
Anyone with information about this case was asked to contact South Pasadena police detectives at (626) 403-7280.
