EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story has been updated with new information from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, including the name of the burglary suspect.
The neighborhood surrounding the 8200 block of De Longpre Avenue between Harper and Sweetzer avenues was abuzz last night and this morning as West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputies tried to extract an alleged robber who had barricaded himself inside an apartment.
Deputies from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station responded at about 9:45 p.m. to a call from a resident who said he had walked out of his apartment briefly, leaving the door open and unlocked, and returned to find it was closed and locked. He told deputies that he believed someone had entered his apartment, where he had several firearms.
Deputies from the L.A. Sheriff’s Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau were called to the scene to try to talk the man inside the apartment into coming out. When that approach didn’t work, they tossed tear gas into the apartment. Meanwhile, deputies had established a security perimeter around the location and evacuated nearby residents.
Deputies finally entered the apartment around 7:15 a.m. and arrested Benjamin Owen Hales, 36, who was not armed. He was taken to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station where he was booked on charges of burglary and vandalism and is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail.
I know him. He did not leave his door open–that is incorrect–but it was unlocked (the perpetrator tried to get in through the window first). And he inherited the firearms from his father, a recently deceased police officer, and was deciding what to do with them. He should, however, have had them secured, and he understands that.
I also live right around the corner from the scene of the incident, and despite a security gate that very few residents actually close, we’ve seen everything from transients setting up shop in the subterranean laundry room to several on-site assaults and vandalism incidents.
These occurrences frequently go unreported, due to the WHSD’s frequent tendency of escalate tenuous situations rather than resolving them, in addition to the landlord’s refusal to institute better security and adequate lighting.
Lock your doors. Look out for yourself. Be aware of your surroundings.
I live right around the corner, and my building is “secure”, but it doesn’t matter. Sure, there’s a security gate, but it’s very easy to get in the building around the perimeter, and every local transient knows that because things are always being stolen. Bottom line, LOCK YOUR DOOR even if you’re leaving for just a minute, and for God’s sake why in the work do you have “several firearms” in your apartment? That’s why all the SWAT team stuff, BTW, because the tenant had unsecured firearms.
Literally the building across the street from me!! I came home and my street was grid locked so I couldn’t access my place for over 5 hours due to the SWAT team activity. GURL, it’s weho take that sht back to east LA…..
This took place in an unsecured building. The area is generally very safe with the occasional transient, usually from Sunset Blvd. BTW, the caption in the photo is incorrect. The person in the picture is a long-time neighborhood resident not the suspect.
That’s the transient that goes into unlocked units through out Weho , pleasures himself and steals. I caught him on camera doing both
Anyone know whether or not this was in a security building, or if other security safeguards (such as lighting, maintained landscaping) are in place at wherever this happened? Or is the layout there unsecured, poorly-lighted, with places that ne’er-do-wells are able to hide?