More than 100 accused of targeting storm victims in the wake of recent hurricanes

Dozens arrested for targeting Pinellas storm victims

Kylie Jones reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has arrested more than 100 people who are accused of taking advantage of victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

On Thursday, the sheriff’s office announced the arrests of 45 people on a total of 68 charges in a looting patrol across the Pinellas County barrier islands. The patrols happened over the course of the last three weeks.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said these suspects are facing different charges, including armed robbery, burglary, loitering and prowling, grand theft, vandalism and trespassing.

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"They’re going into peoples’ homes, they’re taking stuff, they’re rummaging through their things," Gualtieri said.

The sheriff said only two of the 45 suspects are from Pinellas County. He said 41 of them are not U.S. citizens and are from different countries in Central and South America.

"This is the epitome of people trying to exploit others when they’re down and when they’re out, and they’re trying to rebuild, and they’ve got nothing," Gualtieri said.

A month after Hurricane Helene and two weeks after Hurricane Milton, a lot of businesses in Madeira Beach are still closed, and some are still boarded up. A lot of homes on the island are destroyed, and piles of debris still sit in front of houses waiting to be picked up.

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The sheriff’s office also ran a three-day undercover operation with the help of local and state agencies to target unlicensed contracting.

"This whole operation was solely on a couple of streets here in Madeira Beach," Gualtieri said.

As of Thursday evening, the sheriff’s office said it had arrested 64 people on a total of 102 charges. Gualtieri said these suspects offered to do more than 75 projects, including plumbing, roofing and electrical work.

The sheriff said the projects totaled more than $250 million.

"People offering to do work on their property, but in some cases, have no intention of doing the work, in other cases, are unqualified to do the work and, in all of these cases, are unlicensed to do the work," he said.

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The sheriff’s office said a lot of the suspects in this operation also aren’t from Pinellas County and a majority are not U.S. citizens. He said one suspect even had business cards to depict a legitimate contracting company.

"We’ve had contact with 196 other individuals who were in these beach neighborhoods where they did not belong. At times, they should not be there, doing things they should not be doing," Gualtieri said. "But we didn’t have probable cause to arrest these people, so we made contact with them and told them to get out."

The barrier islands in Pinellas County are in the beginning stages of recovery from the storms. A lot of people are only going back to their homes to clean up the destruction.

"People need to be able to rebuild, restore their lives, and we’re going to do all we can to help them do that, without being double victimized," Gualtieri said.

The sheriff’s office said it continued to have dozens of extra deputies patrolling the barrier islands day and night to keep people who don’t belong there off the islands.

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