Gunmen rob Atherton home Gunmen rob Atherton home (November 29, 2000)

A courtly trio of armed and masked robbers invaded a home on Selby Lane and held four Atherton residents at gunpoint for nearly 90 minutes, police said.

The robbers entered through the back door of a house in the 300 block of Selby Lane at about 11:50 p.m. November 20, and forced the four residents to lie on the floor and disclose the location of valuables, according to Lt. Glenn Nielsen.

The residents were unharmed. In fact, when the residents complained that they were uncomfortable lying on the floor, the robbers offered them pillows, he said.

The robbers escaped through the back door with less than $1,000 in valuables, said Lt. Nielsen. The three robbers are described as white males, all about 5'9" or 5'10" and "well-spoken and polite," he said.

This is the second home-invasion robbery in Atherton in a month, and the third within the space of a year, said Lt. Nielsen. That's an unusually high number, although not unheard of. In 1995, there were four home-invasion robberies in Atherton, he said.

Atherton police are also waiting to hear if a man arrested in Los Altos Hills earlier this month can be linked to a string of residential burglaries in Atherton in late October, he said.