A family newly arrived to Silicon Valley from North Carolina — and having trouble making their first rent payment — became the target of a home invasion orchestrated by the frustrated landlord as a way to scare them from the apartment, police and one of the alleged victims said Tuesday.

The bizarre plan backfired — and now, the landlord and four of her friends are facing attempted robbery and other felony charges.

“This was a deliberate attempt using scare tactics to evict a family from a home,” Mountain View police Lt. Armando Espitia said. “There are civil procedures and remedies that landlords and tenants can pursue with regard to late rent payments but, unfortunately, these individuals took extremely dangerous and unlawful steps that resulted in their arrest.”

The landlord, Reenu Saini, 50, of Sunnyvale, and her four friends were arrested outside the apartment building on the corner of Rock Street and Rengstorff Avenue after police arrived around 8:15 p.m. Monday to investigate a call of a burglary in progress. Police said they found the suspects in the front yard. The family, meanwhile, had fled the apartment through a back door and were found on Rengstorff, police said.

On Tuesday, a man at the apartment who identified himself as Marc, 41, one of the victims, spoke to The Chronicle about what happened. He refused to provide his surname, saying he was concerned about his and his family’s safety.

He said the family — he, his wife and their three children ages 18, 17 and 14 — moved to California from North Carolina more than a month ago after his wife obtained a job in the Bay Area. Initially, the family stayed in an Airbnb in Mountain View — also owned by Saini. But when his wife’s job fell through, Saini agreed to set them up in the Rock Street apartment two weeks ago with the understanding they would pay as soon as they got back on their feet financially, Marc said.

He said Saini made a verbal agreement with them to pay $3,900 per month for the Rock Street apartment and it was only later he found out she had put $10,000 per month on the lease. In a surprise to the family, on Aug. 19 Saini sent his wife a text that said, “You gotta pay us or get out today,” he said.

Around the same time, police and Marc said, she cut off the electricity, which Marc said he turned back on. Things got so bad, he said, that a mediator had tried to help them resolve their dispute.

On Monday, Marc said, Saini called the couple to warn them that she was going to do a “lockout” to kick them off the property.

That evening, as the husband, wife and two younger children were watching television in the apartment, the electricity went out again, Marc said. Soon, people were trying to break down the door.

At one point, police said, one of Saini’s friends, Steven Carling, 53, used a knife to try to force open the door — which Marc was holding shut.

Marc said he felt like he was in a horror movie as his kids were screaming and crying in darkness while a suspect who had breached into their home chased him though the apartment.

“I had to scoop my kids out the door,” he said. “She thought she was going to run us out of here ... it was crazy. This lady is insane.”

Saini was arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery of the home she manages; burglary; criminal conspiracy; and unlawfully shutting off power, police said. She could not be reached for comment.

Carling was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, among other charges. His mugshot shows a large purple bruise under his left eye, though police said he did not sustain the injury during the incident Monday.

Steve Chandler, an advocate with the Mountain View Tenants Coalition, said the alleged actions by the landlord and her friends underscore the greed of some area landlords.

“The greed is out of control,” Chandler said. “When somebody doesn’t pay the rent you’re supposed to go through the procedures and there’s all the legal actions they’re allowed to pursue.”

Carling’s bail was set at $110,000, while the other four had bail set at $75,000.

Lori Walston, 49, Brian Ross, 49, and Debra McNeil, 52, were arrested for attempted robbery, burglary of an inhabited dwelling and conspiracy to commit a crime, police said. Saini is a Sunnyvale resident; the others are San Jose residents, police said.

The suspects are scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 29.

Chandler said Rock Street has been a center of activity with displacements and demolitions as landlords and city officials welcome higher-income Silicon Valley tech employees. There are lots of relatively affordable older apartments in that area that are being demolished to make way for luxury apartments, he said.

“Most of our efforts are against corporate landlords because they’re so ruthless,” he said. “The small ma-and-pa landlords are frequently nicer. This lady from Sunnyvale and her gang from San Jose seems to be an exception.”

Former Mountain View mayor and advocate with the Housing Justice Coalition Lenny Siegel, 70, said that while the tactics in this case stand out, property owners near Rock Street have been aggressively seeking legal evictions to redevelop and build town houses.

“I haven’t seen anything this flagrant, but I know people who are being thrown out of their apartments legally, and they’re wondering if they’re going to end up in vehicles,” he said. “These people were clearly breaking the law, but the law doesn’t protect everybody. My view is we need to improve policy and law so tenants are protected.”

Marc, whose kids recently started school in the area, said the two are traumatized after what happened and have had to see counselors.

“The thing that upsets me most is my kids — that they’re traumatized from these scumbags,” he said.

Pete Grieve and Tatiana Sanchez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: pete.grieve@sfchronicle.com; tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com