(The Center Square) – After Pinellas County, Florida, was hit hard by two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, 91% of those arrested for looting were in the country illegally, the county’s sheriff says.
Before Hurricane Helene hit the county, creating an unprecedented storm surge, destroying homes and businesses, an evacuation order was issued. Before Hurricane Milton hit, another evacuation order was issued. Both evacuation orders impacted 500,000 residents and resulted in the county looking like “a complete ghost town,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference on last week.
Storm cleanup is expected to take months, with roughly one million cubic yards of residential debris in unincorporated areas alone to remove, the county communications director said. More than 40,000 homes and 1,000 businesses were severely damaged by both storms. More than 165,000 residents applied for assistance with FEMA, according to county data, WFLA Tampa reported.
Before, during and after the evacuations, Gualtieri reassured residents that his deputies would “saturate neighborhoods to prevent looting and deter those who wanted to wreak further havoc from doing so. We wanted people to feel safe so that they could evacuate and not worry about their properties.”
This involved deploying an additional 80 deputies each night and 30 every day patrolling beach communities and other areas “to apprehend those who were here to steal and cause further damage,” he said.
Between Oct. 2 and 23, deputies conducted looting patrols on the barrier islands and arrested 45 suspects on 68 different charges, including armed robbery, burglary, loitering and prowling, grand theft, vandalism and trespassing.
Of the 45, only two were from the county, the sheriff said. The majority, 41, or 91%, are in the country illegally, citizens of Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela and others, he said.
In addition to the 45 who were arrested, deputies made contact with 196 individuals who were in beach neighborhoods “where they did not belong, at times they should not be there, doing things they should not be doing,” he said. Because they didn’t have probable cause to arrest them, “we made contact with them and told them to get out.”
Of the 196, 141 were not from the county. The majority, 163, or 83%, were not U.S. citizens but were from Central and South America, he said.
As the county continues to recover from the hurricanes, Gualtieri said his deputies will continue with their looting patrols “and arrest everyone we can who is stealing from victims of back-to-back storms that have devastated our communities.”
They are also focused on protecting residents and business owners “desperate to rebuild and get on with their lives from being exploited and ripped off by people offering to do work on their property.”
Many soliciting repair work who claim to be licensed contractors are scammers, he said. In some cases, those offering to do work “have no intention” of doing it. In others, they are unqualified; “In all cases, they are unlicensed,” he said.
“We see this too often in storm-devastated communities where people come in after a hurricane and solicit work to get down payments to secure a place in the line because these contractors are so backed up,” he said. Then, they “never complete the work, or they do shoddy work that does not meet code that has to be redone at additional cost.
“These people are simply scammers and thieves and no different than the people in the neighborhoods at 3 a.m. breaking into a house that we’ve arrested.”
After consumers are defrauded, his office gets “inundated with theft and scheme to defraud cases.” In an effort to mitigate this, his office partnered with several agencies to conduct a three-day undercover operation. It took place in the city of Madeira Beach between Oct. 22 and 24 and resulted in 64 suspects being arrested on102 charges, he said.
Undercover detectives were positioned in various locations and met with individuals who claimed to be licensed contractors, able and qualified to do plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, roofing and structural work. They offered to do 75 projects totaling more than $250,000 worth of work, he said.
Roughly one-third weren’t from the county. “More importantly, many of them have criminal histories,” including engaging in unlicensed contracting, theft, fraud, burglary, robbery and other crimes, he said. This shows that “they’re really thieves looking to prey on vulnerable people who are hurting and who don’t need to be victimized again.”
Gualtieri also cited examples of fake contractors they arrested with criminal histories, including a man previously arrested for “falsely identifying as a licensed contractor, failing to register as a sexual predator, deriving proceeds from prostitution and many drug crimes.” Another was previously arrested for “fraud, probation violations, forgery, illegal use of credit cards, selling counterfeit goods,” among many others. Others were convicted felons on probation.
To potential thieves, he warned: “Don’t come to Pinellas County and steal in these storm-ravaged communities. Don’t prey on people who are trying to recover. If you do, you’re going to go to jail on multiple felony charges.”