Katie Lehnhard, 31, was arrested for stealing from fire evacuees in Santa Rosa, California
A woman in Petaluma, California, has been arrested for stealing credit cards, checkbooks and other property from victims of the fires in Santa Rosa.
Police said Katie Lehnhard, 31, stole from fire evacuees in shelters and from cars parked in evacuation zones.
A fire victim reported fraudulent charges on her bank account to police, and a cancelled check led police to Lehnhard, who had an arrest warrant and was on probation, according to SFGate.
Police found a stash of personal identification information belonging to Santa Rosa fire victims staying in a Petaluma shelter and to some Petaluma residents during a probation search.
The police are still calculating monetary losses as the contact victims.
Lehnhard was booked at the Sonoma County Jail.
Police said Lehnhard stole credit cards, checkbooks and other property from fire evacuees in shelters and from cars parked in evacuation zones after wildfires ravaged Northern California. The destruction is shown above
More than 5,700 structures were destroyed by more than a dozen wildfires that ignited a week ago and consumed an area larger than New York City. At least 40 people were killed
Entire neighborhoods were wiped out by the deadliest blazes in the state’s history
Wildfires in Northern California have killed at least 40 people in the past week.
Firefighters are starting to gain ground on the deadliest blazes in California’s history, as winds ease and searchers comb charred ruins for more victims with hundreds still missing.
More than 5,700 structures were destroyed by more than a dozen wildfires that ignited a week ago and consumed an area larger than New York City.
Entire neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa were reduced to ashes after what has been named the Tubbs fire.
‘Overall, things are feeling optimistic. We’re very cautious about that,’ said Brad Gouvea, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection incident commander. ‘You’d never know it’s the middle of October in Sonoma County and have fire behavior like this.’
Firefighters gained control of two of the deadliest fires in wine country’s Napa and Sonoma counties: The Tubbs fire was 60 percent contained and the Atlas fire 65 percent contained, Cal Fire said.
Firefighters are starting to gain ground on the deadliest blazes in California’s history, as winds ease and searchers comb charred ruins for more victims with hundreds still missing
At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state’s wine industry and related tourism into disarray
Houses left in the wake of the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa are shown in the photo above
Nearly half of the Redwood Valley fire, which alone is responsible for eight deaths in Mendocino County, was extinguished by late Sunday.
The 40 confirmed fatalities make the fires California’s deadliest since record-keeping began, surpassing the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.
About 75,000 people remain displaced.
At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state’s wine industry and related tourism into disarray.