CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Woman with pickax vandalizes family’s home

PASADENA, Calif. (KCAL/KCBS) - A California family is now fearing for their safety after a woman armed with a pickax randomly appeared at their doorstep and began smashing their windows.

The family had just moved there a few months ago. Their dream house is now boarded up, and they said their sense of security is gone.

The family’s security camera recorded the incident.

Arman Tchoukadarian said he got a notification at work Monday from his security system that something was going on at his house.

“All I see is a woman trying to bash our door in,” he said, describing what he saw in the security feed.

Tchoukadarian’s mother-in-law and his newborn girl were inside the house at the time of the incident.

“She immediately, first instinct, ran, grabbed the baby,” he said. “And then as she looked up, she sees this crazy lady with a massive pickax about to swing it again.”

Tchoukadarian’s security camera video shows the woman with the pickax swinging at and destroying the huge glass panel windows on the front of his home.

One of those windows is where, moments before the attack, Tchoukadarian’s newborn had laid in her bassinet.

“The glass shards from these giant windows were literally double her size, right in her bassinet where my daughter was laying,” he said. “If she was five seconds late, our daughter would no longer be with us.”

In the video, the woman is seen continuing to smash the windows, at least three more times, before tossing the pickax over her shoulders and leaving.

“Just no remorse, no emotion. Just came did her job and then tossed it over her shoulders and then left,” Tchoukadarian said.

A few hours later, Pasadena police arrested the woman and booked her on vandalism charges.

Police said she was having a mental health crisis.

Tchoukadarian said he doesn’t know who the woman is, other than she lives across the street from his family.

“I am assuming if there is a mental illness, she is going to do something like that to everyone and not just target us,” he said.

The family’s peace of mind is now shattered, he said, much like the large windows on the front of their home.

“My wife and kid can’t even come home,” Tchoukadarian said. “They’re terrified. They don’t want to come home.”

Tchoukadarian filed a restraining order against the woman.

Police said she caused about $20,000 worth of damage, but Tchoukadarian said that’s just the initial estimate, and the real cost could be much more.