Looting concerns continue in tornado areas

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — As tornado victims continue to clean-up and rebuild, many are facing an additional cause of stress as looters continue to scavenge the area.

“It was unbelievable that someone would actually do this after what our neighborhood’s been through,” Drake Forest homeowner Naazneen Mehtar said.

Even nearly a month after Easter’s deadly storms, residents in the Drake Forest neighborhood are still dealing with looters.

“Between Saturday and Tuesday, nobody was at the house. No contractors, nobody,” Mehtar said. “On Tuesday when we got there, we’d noticed our backdoor had been broken, and the items that were visible from the window, that is the lawnmower, the little weed eater, and a tool box was taken.”

The Mehtars aren’t the only family that’s fallen victim to looters. People from East Brainerd to Holly Hills and into Ooltewah have reported break-ins and stolen items. Some have even had chainsaws vanish off the back of their trucks.

“It’s just unbelievable,” said Niki Schmidtke, whose house in Ooltewah was broken into just days after the storm. “I mean, we were pretty lucky, but some people had injuries and lost everything. I mean, there were deaths. And just to think that someone would go use that as an opportunity to go and commit crimes and take from these people who have already had so much taken from them is just really sad.”

Chattanooga Police say they have made multiple arrests of suspects targeting the tornado area. CPD is continuing to patrol the area with extra officers to keep others at bay.

“Honestly, I think the police are doing a great job,” Mehtar said. “It’s just there’s so many people unaccounted for in our neighborhood, it’s hard control it. I’d just like everybody to be extra cautious and say, ‘Yes, we need to increase our security,’ during this rebuild phase, because I don’t think that this is the last issue that’s going to happen. It’s going to continue until the neighborhood is fully populated again.”