by Liz Mullen
Hermosa camping ban enforcement begins
The Hermosa Beach Police Department is enforcing a new city ordinance prohibiting camping on the beach and got some new wheels to patrol the sands this summer.
HBPD Chief Landon Phillips told the city council at its May 13 meeting that officers arrested one unhoused person three times for violating the city’s no beach camping law after giving out plenty of warnings to local homeless.
The new ordinance took effect on April 24. HBPD reached out to unhoused persons prior to the new law trying to help them find legal shelter and housing, Phillips told the Hermosa Beach City Council on May 13.
“We had one particular subject who was issued a citation on April 16,” Phillips told the council. “That person was advised the new camping ordinance would take effect on April 24. That individual and another associate had set up a small encampment near the lifeguard headquarters and on April 24, that subject was arrested for a misdemeanor.”
The property that person had erected as part of the encampment was removed from the beach but HBPD had to arrest this particular person two more times, Phillips said.
“In one instance the subject moved to the southside of the city,” Phillips said. “He told our officers he thought he was in Redondo.”
At that same May 13 meeting, the city council approved the purchase of four new vehicles that the police department can use on the beach this summer.
The council agreed to purchase two Polaris Ranger XP 1000s for about $104,000 for the pair as well as two Toyota Tacomas for about $100,000 for both.
The council almost delayed action on the purchase of the vehicles, but Chief Phillips pressed the council to act.
“Two of these vehicles are UTVs — utility terrain vehicles,” Phillips said. “These are the vehicles used by police officers on the beach. The UTVs we have now are non-operational. There is a need. And if we continue to push it, it will be at the end of summer before we have these vehicles.”
The council voted 3-to-1 to buy the vehicles with Councilman Dean Francois being the lone no vote.
GPS tracker tags fleeing HBPD suspect
HBPD used a GPS tracker to arrest a suspect who drove away from police during a traffic stop earlier this month.
Last year the city council authorized the purchase of the devices, called StarChase trackers, at a cost of $61,000. HBPD are able to launch the trackers at a suspect’s car and then follow at a safe distance, avoiding the dangers of a high-speed pursuit.
About 2 a.m. on May 1, officers made what Phillips described as a fairly normal traffic stop in the city, but that changed when the driver took off.
“The officers initiated a pursuit, deployed the StarChase tool and then immediately shut down that pursuit,” Phillips said. HBPD were able to affix the tracker to the suspect’s car without the suspect knowing it was there.
Officers tracked the driver’s vehicle as it drove into the city of Los Angeles. “Shortly thereafter we were able to track that vehicle to a nearby McDonald’s, because apparently running from the cops makes you hungry at 2 a.m,” Phillips told the council.
HBPD arrested the driver, with the assistance of the Los Angeles Police Department, without a car chase with sirens that has the potential to put officers, the suspect and innocent bystanders in danger, Phillips told the council.
U.S. Postal investigates stolen Hermosa mail
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating multiple reports of checks mailed to the IRS from the Hermosa Beach post office that were stolen, and in some cases, altered and cashed.
There have been at least four such incidents, starting on April 11 and continuing through May 1, according to the Hermosa Beach Police Department.
On April 11, a victim mailed a check to the IRS from the Post Office at 500 Pier Avenue. The victim received a call from Wells Fargo informing them that someone was trying to deposit that check into a bank account.
Again, on April 11, checks were mailed to the IRS from the Hermosa post office. Those checks were intercepted, altered and cashed.
There were two other incidents involving checks intended for the IRS that were stolen, changed and cashed. One on April 29 and another on May 1.
Stealing mail is a federal crime and the Inspection Service is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service.
“Regarding checks being stolen, washed, and cashed from the Hermosa Beach Post Office …the Inspection Service is aware of and is actively investigating these reports,” Lucas Watanabe, public information officer of Los Angeles division of the inspection service wrote to Easy Reader in an email.
Watanabe said he could not provide further details because it is an ongoing investigation. Anyone who believes their mailed checks were stolen or anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call the USPIS hotline at (877) 876-2455.
DA weighs charges in Levi death
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is still in the process of determining what charges to file against Jenia Belt, the motorist who struck and killed 18-year-old Braun Levi.
Belt was originally arrested and charged with murder and driving under the influence by the MBPD after the tragic crash in the early morning of May 4. Belt, as the Los Angeles Times reported, was driving on a suspended license due to a previous DUI charge.
Belt had been booked into the MBPD jail but was transferred to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood where she was being held on $500,000 bail for a probation violation. She is due to appear at a probation violation hearing on May 28.
MBPD arrest juveniles for assault
Manhattan Beach Police Department officers arrested juveniles for inflicting great bodily harm on a victim in the early morning of May 2.
MBPD was called to the scene of what was reported as a robbery at 1:14 a.m. on May 2 on the 900 block of Manhattan Avenue. When officers got there, witnesses provided the description and license plate number of the suspects’ getaway car.
The car was located in a neighboring city and it was determined that the two juvenile suspects did not take anything from the victim but did cause great bodily harm. The juveniles were arrested and booked into Juvenile Hall. The victim told police they would seek medical attention on their own.
Wallet taken in Redondo while groceries being loaded
A young woman stole a wallet from the front seat of an SUV while the owner of the car was busy unloading groceries earlier this month in Redondo Beach.
It happened a little after 1 p.m. on the 4000 Block of Inglewood Avenue. The woman suspect made entry into the car by opening the unlocked front passenger door of the Camry SUV when the owner of the car was distracted with the groceries. The woman got away in a tan SUV, possibly a Nissan Pathfinder.
An unknown suspect stole a Glock 19 semi-automatic handgun, a bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey, a wallet and credit cards from 2024 Honda Accord SUV that was parked on the 1800 block of Hawthorne Boulevard on the evening of Sunday, May 11. ER
