Victims of post-Milton burglaries in Charlotte County speak out

As if neighbors in Charlotte County haven’t gone through enough this month, they now have to face another challenge: looters.

Some people were forced to evacuate for Milton hoping their homes would be salvageable. What they didn’t expect were thieves waiting to take advantage and looting what they had left before they returned.

It’s been a week since Hurricane Milton, and Burton Webb is still digging out his home.

The storm took so much from Manasota key, but prowling looters are looking to take more.

“It’s a shame if it’s happening, I mean most of us, as you can look around, don’t have anything to steal,” said Webb.

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s office announced Friday that two men were arrested for burglaries. One from a Port Charlotte storage unit and the other, from a Manasota key home.

Though unrelated, the sheriff’s office said both are part of a larger trend: looting in evacuation zones.

“You have people that are leaving their homes unsure of what they’re going to come back to. And really, there’s just so much heightened emotion during a hurricane, as it is, and then to come home and find this it’s just, it’s just despicable,” said Gabriella Ruiz, Public Information officer for the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.

Stealing from people, like Webb, who have just lost everything.

“The TV, the couches, the art, the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, counters, cabinets. 100% gone,” said Webb. “It’s gone. Hundreds of yards away. So there’s really nothing you can do.”

“Nothing you can do” and yet, Webb and his neighbors still hammer in signs, tape off homes, and take whatever precautions they can to protect what little they have left and the hidden treasures they find along the way.

“This is probably number two of my collection that I’m starting over,” said Karen Webb.

It’s a shark tooth, one of the thousands Webb’s wife lost in the storm, now scattered in the piles of sand that overtook her home.

“Glimmer of hope in the midst of the rubble and the destruction,” she said, “They can find more out there, but… this is mine.”

A tooth-size beacon of hope proves that even looters can’t take everything of value.