Lock Up Your Home Before You Evacuate, Police Urge
Some residents are leaving doors and windows unlocked or open because they mistakenly believe that will help firefighters. Such action, however, helps looters to gain access and fire to easily spread.

As news of weekend wildfire evacuations spread in the Southland, thieves took note.

In Porter Ranch, a man accidentally left open the rear sliding-glass door of his house and forgot to activate the security alarm when he evacuated the area Saturday morning. When he returned at about 12:30 p.m., he found two women packing their car with what he said were his family's belongings, Los Angeles police said.

The man, whose name was not released by police, flagged down three police officers temporarily assigned to the area. The officers checked the man's identification and confirmed that he owned the two-story house on Stewarton Drive, then handcuffed the women and began to question them, police said.

Gina Rios, 19, of North Hollywood and Sabrina Devens, 32, of Sherman Oaks told police they had come to the neighborhood to meet someone.

"They said they were waiting for a friend, Jerry," Officer Sandy Acevedo said Sunday, recounting the previous day's incident.

"Jerry who?" Acevedo asked.

"Jerry Maguire," the women replied.

As in the movie starring Tom Cruise?

"They said that it was a real person," Acevedo said. "They were unable to give us a phone number or address or any kind of other information."

Officers searched the women's pockets. Rios was found to have $43, allegedly taken from a nightstand in the house, and keys to the family's Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes, Acevedo said.

Officers also found numerous items allegedly taken from the house -- including a crystal fruit plate, an Xbox, a Louis Vuitton bag, a Coach wallet and Polo sneakers -- inside the women's green Infiniti sedan.

Police arrested Rios and Devens on suspicion of burglary and each were being held Sunday on $50,000 bail.

Acevedo said she hoped other residents, should they have to evacuate, remember to lock all doors and windows and to activate alarm systems.

"He was very lucky that we were patrolling in that area," Acevedo said of the Porter Ranch homeowner.

LAPD Sgt. Tim Walters said Sunday that three looting arrests were made to the east in the Mission Hills police division Saturday. He said he could not remember whether looting arrests occurred during previous fires in the area.

"Folks are generally devastated by this stuff, and they stay away," he said. "But you have your opportunists."

Walters said he was concerned that some residents were leaving doors and windows either unlocked or open because they mistakenly believed that would help firefighters enter and defend their homes.

"I know there's a rumor going around that the department wants the doors open so they can get in, that it's easier. They don't. It actually makes it easier for the fire to spread if the doors are open," and wind blows in with sparks, embers and other fire debris, Walters said.

Walters urged residents to lock their homes to prevent looting.

"If the fire department needs to, they'll get in," he said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had not received reports of looting late Sunday.

Hennessy-Fiske is a Times staff writer.