Hurricane Irma looters descended on a Foot Locker store in Fort Lauderdale as the storm lashed the area on Sunday and police arrested nine out of more than a dozen of them after a local television news crew video recorded the rampage.
In Miami-Dade County, police shot a teen and arrested as many as 28 other people for looting during Irma.
The heavy rain and high winds that last Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday didn’t stop more than a dozen looters from raiding the Foot Locker, along with a Cash America Pawn and Simon's Sportswear in the Sunrise Boulevard and Powerline Road area, WPLG-TV reported.
The TV crew filmed people running out of the closed Foot Locker with their arms full of boxes of shoes and loading them in cars.
"Going to prison over a pair of sneakers is a fairly bad life choice," Fort Lauderdale police Chief Rick Maglione told WPLG-TV. "Stay home and look after your loved ones and be thankful they are all safe."
The six adults and three juveniles arrested face charges of burglary during a natural disaster.
In Miami-Dade County, a Broward deputy sheriff shot a 17-year-old youth outside a home being looted after homeowners called authorities, WTVJ reported. The youth was sent to Broward Health Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
Authorities arrested 10 people after a WTVJ reporter saw a dozen people inside a closed Midtown store loading boxes of shoes and clothes into a vehicle. Police also responded to reports of looting at a Walmart in Hialeah Gardens, but it was’not clear if any arrests were made.
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