Sheriff takes aim at hurricane looters and scammers

It’s open season on hurricane looters, thieves and scam artists, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced at a media briefing Thursday afternoon outside Madeira Beach City Hall.

Standing alongside a trio of easels displaying more than 40 mug shots, Gualtieri said that 45 people were arrested in barrier island communities between Oct. 2 and 23, on 68 different charges. These included armed robbery, burglary, loitering, grand theft, vandalism and trespassing.

Just two of the 45, he announced, were from Pinellas County. “The rest came here from out of the area to steal from our residences and businesses.”

In addition, according to Gualtieri, 41 of the 45 were not U.S. citizens, but here illegally from various Central and South American countries.

As he was speaking, an assistant handed the sheriff a piece of paper. He read it and announced that the number of arrests had increased – just today – to 63.

At that moment, deputies walked two handcuffed men behind him, in full view of the media, and loaded them into a waiting van.

The mass arrests, he said, were the result of the department’s 80 extra deputies per night, and 30 each day, patrolling the beach communities during the time residents were evacuated. An additional 196 individuals were stopped by law enforcement in the beach communities, with no discernible business there, and told to leave. All but 30 of these, Gualtieri pointed out, were not documented U.S. citizens.

“As these communities recover,” the sheriff continued, “we’re going to continue these patrols and arrest everyone we can who is stealing from the vulnerable victims of the two back-to-back storms that have devastated our community.”

As Gualtieri speaks, deputies walk behind him with two men in handcuffs. “These two guys make up those most recent numbers,” he said. Image is a screengrab from a WFLA News video.

He then laid out the story of Operation Flood of Fraud, a covert effort by the Sheriff’s Office, Pinellas County Consumer Protection, Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, the City of Madeira Beach and others.

Deputies posing as Madeira Beach home or business owners were approached by individuals claiming to be qualified and interested in helping out.

“They held themselves out to be licensed contractors, able and qualified to do plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, roofing and structural work,” said Gualtieri. Often, the scam is to take a deposit and never return to do the work.

“Since Tuesday, we have arrested 58 people, on about 80 different charges, for engaging in unlicensed contracting in violation of Florida law.” Twenty-one of these were not from Pinellas County; many have extensive criminal records.

Because Florida governor Ron DeSantis has declared a State of Emergency, these are felony charges.

The “contracting scam” arrests, the sheriff noted sadly, were made on just two or three Madeira Beach streets. It’s happening all over the county. He urged residents to obtain written proof that they are dealing with capable contractors that are fully licensed by the State.

“These people are simply scammers and thieves, and no different than the people in the neighborhoods at 3 a.m., breaking into a house.”

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