‘We are not bluffing’: California AG Bonta says charges are coming for looters, price gougers
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — In the plainest of terms, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Thursday that the hammer will come down on those who attempt to take advantage of the victims of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
During an appearance on the KTLA 5 Morning News, Bonta told KTLA’s Frank Buckley and Jessica Holmes that he’s set to announce a task force his office is creating, which will put more resources toward investigating criminal complaints made in the area of the wildfires.
“We are not bluffing,” Bonta said. “If you think we are bluffing and you call it, you will regret it.”
As of Wednesday, as many as 50 looting arrests have been made. The concern is so large that some residents are defying evacuation orders and arming themselves to protect their homes from looters, according to KTLA reporting, a trend that Bonta discouraged on Thursday, urging people to leave that to local police.
District Attorneys in Los Angeles and Orange counties have called for law changes that include criminal enhancements for looting during a local emergency. Bonta said that examining those laws is “an appropriate discussion to have” as evacuated L.A. residents fear for their belongings.
“I think we need to be slapping people with the harshest penalties right now,” Bonta said, while acknowledging that as of now, California law only designates looting as a crime if more than $950 worth of items are stolen. “It is wrong to be hurting people right now. We need to be helping people.”
Bonta vowed to prosecute looters, as well as scammers, fraudsters and price gougers.
The fires have already had impacts on the renting market in L.A., as the AG’s office has received “hundreds” of complains about landlords sharply — and illegally — raising rent prices as housing demands have gone up.
Some have reported that landlords have created “bidding wars” for short-term rentals, which Bonta said is illegal.
“We are going to arrest people, hold them accountable and make sure we end the price gouging here in L.A.,” Bonta said.