Crime writer takes on role of character in own novel as he thwarts ‘unsettling’ home invasion

Lee Goldberg has published dozens of crime novels including ‘Lost Hills’ and ‘True Fiction’

A bestselling crime writer took on the role of a character in one of his own novels when he managed to thwart an attemped break-in of his Southern California home – thanks to security cameras that captured the frightening ordeal.

Lee Goldberg, who has penned dozens of crime novels including “Lost Hills” and “True Fiction,” was at home with his wife and daughter inside their Calabasas home when they got an alert on their iPad from the motion sensor just before 9pm on Thursday.

The family then watched as bone-chilling security camera footage captured four masked men dressed in all black creeping up a steep hillside, through the brush into their backyard.

“It’s very unsettling,” Mr Goldberg later told KTLA. “It’s what I write about, this stuff, and I imagine it, but I don’t think it would happen to me.”

Mr Goldberg recalled the men were also wearing hoodies and gloves, adding “they looked organised, they looked professional”.

When Mr Goldberg picked up the phone to call police, the would-be thieves turned around and fled down the same hillside they came from.

He said that he believes the men saw him pick up the phone to alert authorities.

Mr Goldberg posted the security footage on his Facebook page pointing out the irony of what happened.

“Once again, my fiction is coming true. Chilean Burglary Tourists play a big part in my next Eve Ronin novel, DREAM TOWN. So what happens? Tonight they tried to hit my house... **while I was home**,” he wrote in the post.

“This happened with LOST HILLS... I ended the book with a massive wildfire in the Santa Monica Mountains... and a few months later, it happened, just how I described it.”

Bone-chilling footage shows the would-be thieves creeping up through the bushes and onto Lee Goldberg’s Calabasas property on 10 August (Lee Goldberg/Facebook)

Lee Goldberg thwarts home invasion (Lee Goldberg/Facebook)

Mr Goldberg’s neighbour, who did not want to be identified, told KTLA that his own home had been burglarised just before Thursday’s thwarted home invasion.

The neighbour said that it wasn’t the first time his home had been targeted, which has left him considering moving out of the neighbourhood.

While they live in a gated community, Mr Golberg said that he thinks thieves are getting in by going to a nearby golf course and hiking up hills to gain access to the properties.

“We live in a gated community and it gives you this false sense of security,” Mr Goldberg said.

“I think all you can do is try and be vigilant. I’m just glad I didn’t go outside and confront them, that was my instinct.”

Local authorities say the recent incidents in the neighbourhood are under investigation. Police would not confirm if any arrests have been made.