- Officials step up canal patrols, arrest more than 12
people on theft, prowling, burglary charges
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- CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Some
anxious residents are arming themselves and patrolling their neighborhoods
to protect what little they have left after Hurricane Charley.
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- Men in a Punta Gorda neighborhood sleep with their shotguns,
and in another neighborhood a man was arrested after he shot at a truck
that didn't belong there. A sign at the entrance to a third neighborhood
warns: "You loot; we shoot."
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- With no power, water or communications, many residents
have come up with worst-case scenarios for what's going on around them.
And they say they don't feel safe without their weapons.
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- Those residents, isolated from the rest of the world,
say they've heard looters are no longer interested in stealing TVs; now
they're after generators and water -- supplies people need to survive.
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- Teresa and Lonnie Brick, who lost their roof, pulled
back the blankets on their bed in a borrowed trailer to reveal the two
shotguns they sleep with.
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- "All of the neighbors are like this," Lonnie
Brick said. "The worst thing about it all? There was no news. All
we heard were rumors."
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- "Massive widespread looting, and we heard there
was total destruction and hundreds of dead bodies. We couldn't see to the
next street; we didn't know," Teresa Brick said.
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- Authorities have arrested more than a dozen people on
theft, prowling and burglary charges in recent days, according to arrest
reports. They've also stepped up patrols in the county's canals, where
residents say looters have been boating in to plunder homes.
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- There are 600 National Guard members in the county. Some
of those troops help enforce curfew, setting up roadblocks and patrolling
streets at night.
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- But still, residents in some neighborhoods are working
on their own. One resident suffered hallucinations after staying up for
five days protecting his property from looters, according to a doctor at
a FEMA mobile emergency unit in Punta Gorda.
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- The night after the hurricane, Lonnie Brick and four
of his neighbors sat in an empty boat shed with rifles, waiting to turn
people away. They'd already had people in their neighborhood near the Punta
Gorda Country Club wanting to sell them particle board at $35 a sheet and
a tree service wanting $500 up front to start clearing trees.
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- Authorities were called out to Brick's neighborhood the
night after the hurricane when someone reported that there were nine vigilantes
with shotguns roaming the neighborhood.
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- It was an an exaggeration, Brick said. There were only
five of them and they were in the boat shed. Police warned the residents
not to go after looters, but to call 911.
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- "I handed him my cell phone, which doesn't work
at all, and said, 'You try,'" Lonnie Brick said.
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- For those who think no one will shoot, think again.
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- Neon orange circles spray-painted on an Edgewater street
show the location of seven shell casings.
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- "When Jeb declared it a state of emergency, to me
that means martial law," Cliff McMahon said. "People were stealing
plywood from a home on our block a day before the hurricane."
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- McMahon, 44, a retired home improvement contractor, and
his wife, Joanne, were walking on Moorehaven Court when a truck sped toward
them Saturday night. Cliff McMahon said the driver was speeding at more
than 50 miles per hour. He waved his arms at the people in the truck, hoping
they'd slow down.
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- McMahon, who had a 9 mm pistol holstered at his side,
said the driver stopped and reached under his seat. That's when McMahon
says he pulled his gun.
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- The driver jumped back in his truck and tried to run
him down, McMahon said. McMahon said he was only protecting himself when
he shot at the truck.
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- "I was defending myself and my neighbors,"
McMahon said. "There's no better way to do that than with a sidearm."
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- Police arrested McMahon after he found an officer in
the neighborhood and told him what happened. He was charged with brandishing
and discharging a firearm. He's been the only resident arrested in recent
days on those charges.
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- McMahon said his arrest was practically a blessing. He
spent the night in the air-conditioned Sarasota County jail and said it
was the most sleep he's gotten since the hurricane.
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- McMahon's friends and neighbors are quick to come to
his defense. He's been rewiring their pool pumps to run off generators,
patching their roofs and letting them use his generator.
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- When asked if he's still armed, McMahon looked at the
ground. His friend, Pete Bates, answered for him.
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- "You're supposed to say, 'no,' Cliff. No. No gun
for him," Bates said.
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- Once they get power back, Teresa Brick said they'll put
the guns away, but right now their street is so inky-black at night they
want people to stay away.
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- The couple says they are grateful for relief workers
who come during the day.
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- Staff writer Michael A. Scarcella contributed to this
report.
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- http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A
ID=/20040821/NEWS/408210498/1385
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