DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- The Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s office is enhancing penalties for anyone caught looting in tornado damaged areas of Dallas County.
“It ranges anywhere from shop lifting, or breaking into someones home and assaults in case someone get in a fight in a disaster zone we can seek an enhancement there,” said Assistant District Attorney Robert Withers.
Withers said several people have already been arrested for stealing from homes and buildings hardest hit by as many as ten tornadoes that struck on October 20th.
The new law went into effect September 1st and it goes into effect anytime the president, the governor, or county judge or mayor declares a state of disaster. The definition of disaster is “the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause.” Some examples listed in the statute are fire, flood, earthquake, and wind, etc.
A burglary of a building normally carries a range of punishment between 180 days and two years in prison. However, under the new enhancement rule, a burglary of a building committed in a disaster zone can be punished between two and ten years in prison. If the burglary is of a home located in a disaster ar
ea, an individual now faces anywhere between five years to life in prison. The sentence for the same crime before September 1 was two to twenty years.
“The District Attorney’s Office is using this new enhancement law to help people who have already been victimized by a devastating tornado, or other disaster, from becoming victimized again by looters,” said Jason Hermus, Chief of Division C and the Community Response Team.
The outbreak of tornadoes caused $2 billion in losses and turned many lives upside-down. The District Attorney’s Office is doing all that it can to protect these families and business owners from further devastation.
If you see something, contact police.