Pinellas deputies have arrested scores of suspects this month in a crackdown on looting and unlicensed contracting in Pinellas beach towns after hurricanes Helene and Milton displaced many residents.
In a news conference in Madeira Beach Thursday afternoon, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the severe damage wrought by the hurricanes has drawn an unprecedented amount of bad actors to the beaches.
“We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude before, we’ve never seen this influx of people from out of the area that are clearly just here to steal and to pilfer and to do bad things and to target these vulnerable people,” he said.
