Police Chief Warns “Fools” Against Victimizing Houstonians

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls and Lucas Wu lift Ethan Wu into an airboat.
CNN photo

DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) — Natural disasters usually bring out the best in people but in a few cases they bring out the worst.

In flood-ravaged South Texas there are thousands of stories of neighbors rescuing neighbors and doing what they can to ease their shared suffering but there are also the inevitable stories of people trying to take advantage of a disaster.

Houston law enforcement officers have responded to isolated reports of looting since Harvey slammed into businesses and sent homeowners fleeing.

In Fort Bend County some looters even impersonated officials, encouraging residents to evacuate and then rifling through their belongs after they left.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said by Monday afternoon his officers had arrested four armed men caught hijacking vehicles and three others for looting a video game store.

Acevedo told KHOU-TV his officers are bone-weary, working more than 30 hours with sleep. Many of them lost their own homes and haven’t had time to be with their evacuated families.

“To the fools out there, don’t come to Houston and victimize our people,” Acevedo warns.

“We’re not going to stop, we’re not going to give up.”

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