Police say that a California felon who is accused of torturing and kidnapping two women at his house told them they were burglars.
Gilberto Puga (53), of Moreno Valley, is accused of false imprisonment and torture. He is currently being held in jail on a $1 million bail.
Puga called the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office on May 14, reporting that two women had broken into his home in the 26000 Block of Prairie Dog Lane.
In a press statement, the sheriff’s office stated that authorities received a call later from two females “screaming” for help at Puga’s home.
Upon arrival, deputies observed the two victims leaving Puga’s home.
The sheriff’s department said that investigators found “that two females were not the burglars of Puga’s house, but had been held in Puga’s home, against their will and tortured.”
According to a criminal complaint filed against Puga, obtained by the local news outlet KTLA 5, the suspect allegedly tortured the two victims with a stun gun for over 30 minutes in an enclosed patio.
Puga was arrested on the following day.
According to KTLA, the suspect has a criminal record and a bad reputation with his neighbors. Eddie De Leon, a resident of the area, told KTLA that Puga approached Eddie’s 18-year-old daughter in front of their home last February.
De Leon, the woman who has a restraining against Puag now, stated that “he pulls up and blocks [her] in our driveway.” “He starts talking about how beautiful she is and that it’s Valentine’s Day, so he’d like to take her on a romantic date if she didn’t already have one.”
Sammy, a neighbor who also claimed to have been threatened by the suspect, said that he had threatened her family.
Sammy, a KTLA reporter, said, “He told me he would come and kill all of us in the house. He was going get people from L.A. to come and shoot at my house.”
The authorities are asking anyone with “information or contact with Puga in similar circumstances” to call Investigator Robert Castellanos at (951) 486-0700.
