Jail, Probation for Thief who Stole Vehicle During CA Wildfire

A Northern California man was sentenced Thursday to three years and eight months for stealing an evacuee’s vehicle and other items from a home empty during the largest wildfire this year in California.

Joshua Keith Emerson, 49, pleaded no contest Sept. 19 to second-degree burglary, vehicle theft, a misdemeanor charge of petty theft and a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering into an area closed due to an emergency during the Park Fire, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

“Looters undermine the trust of the community and are one of the reasons people are fearful to leave their residences during an evacuation. Let this case be a warning to looters, the crime will not pay,” Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said previously in a news release.

The Park Fire, which burned 429,603 acres after prosecutors said an alleged arsonist ignited the blaze July 24, has been fully contained. The fourth largest fire in California history prompted thousands of evacuations as it charred through Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties.

Emerson, a Cohasset resident, was arrested after an evacuated resident returned to their home July 30 in Cohasset with a law enforcement escort. Several homes in Cohasset were destroyed as flames ravaged the town.

Upon returning home, the evacuee noticed his Jeep and Milwaukee-brand tools were gone, prosecutors said.

The vehicle was discovered the same day in southeast Chico near Jasper Drive after the owner posted about his loss on Facebook and another person online recognized the car.

Butte County sheriff’s investigators found surveillance videos showing Emerson driving the Jeep into Chico and dropping off a passenger at a home, prosecutors said.

The passenger was also charged in this case, but court records show the charges have been dismissed.

Emerson said in a probation report that he took the Jeep to escape flames, prosecutors said. But the Butte County District Attorney’s Office and the judge “noted that (the) Park Fire had already gone through Cohasset four days earlier and called out the statement as a lie,” according to Thursday’s news release.

Emerson was arrested Aug. 1, and the victim’s items were returned to him, prosecutors said.

He will serve one year in county jail with two years and eight months to be served via probation, prosecutors said.