Residents who have already suffered after losing their homes in the Eaton Fire are now having to worry about something else: burglaries.
Lt. Ethan Marquez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Altadena station confirmed to KTLA that there have been 142 burglaries reported in the Eaton Fire burn area since the start of the year.
That marks an increase of “several hundred percent,” he said.
The increase in crime is causing great concern for area residents, who say that the community normally does not have many burglaries. Compounding the issue is the fact that over 1,600 homes were lost in the blaze, leaving “not many eyes” to watch out for nefarious activity in the area.
“A majority of the population has not returned to the area, so there are not as many eyes per se,” Lt. Marquez said. “That has led to the availability of opportunities to try and take advantage.”
KTLA 5’s Kimberly Cheng spoke with one property owner in Altadena on Monday whose home is one of the few still standing, although most of his neighbors’ homes are not.
Declining to go on camera, he said that his home has been hit three times since the Eaton Fire broke out on Jan. 7.
The first incident occurred the night the fire broke out after his family evacuated, he said. It was targeted two more times in the last three weeks; the burglars took tools and photography equipment from his garage.
At least two other nearby residences on the same street were also hit, the man added.
The anonymous resident told KTLA that he believes more patrols of the neighborhood would help, as would bringing the National Guard, who are already deployed in the Palisades Fire burn scar areas.
Those patrols would mainly need to be conducted at night, as the area is generally busy with contractors and debris removal crews during the daytime, he noted.
Speaking on the presence of law enforcement in the area, Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, said it is “not [her] call” as to whether or not more officers can be deployed.
“What I’ve been told is that the National Guard is in this area, [but] it’s really not my call,” she told KTLA on Monday. “I’ve talked to the people that coordinate on this…it’s not appropriate, and I think that there are those who would argue that after the National Guard [being deployed] was overkill.”
“At the end of the day, we have [the sheriff’s department] up here, and I’d rather give additional resources to [them] to do more patrols,” Barger added.
Affected residents can sign up for home check programs so that patrol units can check on their homes periodically. To do so, send an email to [email protected] with your name, address, and a call back number.
