Booking logs from the LA County Sheriff’s Department show that at least seven people have so far been arrested and charged with burglary during a natural disaster since Tuesday. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said Thursday that his team had arrested 20 people for theft and looting during the Southern California fires between Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the fire areas.
A spokesperson for the LA County Sheriff’s Department did not answer questions about whether more charges would be forthcoming but said in a Friday statement that logs “are not immediately available for arrests and may take to populate in the system once completed.” Three people around the Eaton fire and 15 near the Palisades fire have so far been arrested, the spokesperson said, but they did not provide information about the charges.