It has been a gradual, painstaking course of for the residents of Altadena as they proceed to rebuild their lives from the rubble, particles and injury brought on by the Eaton wildfires — however an alarming enhance in looting has the group proper again on edge and afraid of what’s to return.
On Wednesday, April 23, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division shared a extremely disturbing replace that crime in Altadena has risen to stunning ranges within the aftermath of the Eaton fireplace — with authorities confirming that arrests locally are up a whopping 250%, the majority of that are thefts.
Nonetheless, thieves usually are not simply breaking into properties in Altadena, the criminals have additionally set their sights on stealing the copper wire from dormant energy traces to show a revenue.
Lt. Ethan Marquez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division shared the latest statistics of crime within the space. “We arrested 15 people – eight felonies, seven misdemeanors for theft in and across the space,” he mentioned.
“Deputies simply occurred to return throughout a few individuals, tried to fake that they had been staff within the space and once they stopped and talked to them, it was very apparent that they weren’t staff they usually had been in a position to impact an arrest,” Marquez added.
He additionally famous that the looters have gone a step additional of their theft pursuits by disguising themselves as officers despatched to restore and rebuild the world.
Authorities mentioned they’ve witnessed thieves wearing PPE gear and different official-related clothes to impersonate Military Corps engineers and different fire-related staff.
In response to the rising crime and in an effort to quell the worry, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division mentioned it has established a home-check program the place residents can request deputies to patrol their properties and surrounding properties in Altadena.
Regardless of the risks looters pose to residents, Lt. Marquez mentioned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division is dedicated to making sure that these residing within the Altadena group are secure and guarded.
“The rebuild goes to take a number of years and the sheriff’s division and Altadena station is dedicated to the group,” Marquez mentioned. “And we’re going to maintain bringing further assets in so long as we will to guarantee that the theft and all of the crime is decreased.”
Given all that the Altadena group has endured inside the previous few months and their lengthy and laborious journey to rebuilding forward, hopefully native authorities can considerably curb the crime and supply security for group that has already suffered a lot.
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