Suspect In Custody After Police Say They Looted Storm-Damaged Neighborhood

A suspect was arrested and is accused of breaking into damaged homes and stealing from people impacted by storms.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said that they expect additional victims to come forward.

The Sheriff’s Office is now working to increase security in Choctaw and Harrah, hoping to protect people impacted by the storm.

The Zachary family was in their Choctaw home when the tornado ripped through on Sunday night. They say they were just thankful that they all made it through, but say their house which they only lived in for about six months was destroyed.

“Our house is completely ruined, there's no going back, there's no roof,” said Myelia Zachary.

The day they went back to their home to survey the damages and see what they could salvage, they noticed a lot of things out of place. 

“I walked through to the master bedroom, saw clothes on the floor that weren't, saw doors open that weren't, our washer was pulled out when it wasn't,” said Jeffrey Zachary. “Everything is just in a completely different position and orientation than when we left it just eight hours prior.”

That’s when they realized somebody had torn through their damaged home, stealing clothes, electronics, purses, and more.

“It was ridiculous for somebody to; after losing so much, to lose so much more,” said Myelia.

“Did I think it was gonna ever happen to us here in Oklahoma? No. So we didn't prepare for any of that and to discover that it happened you feel violated,” said Jeffery.

Now the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office is keeping a close eye on the area.

“What we're trying to do is assure them that we're gonna do everything we can to protect what they have left,” said Aaron Brilbeck, PIO for OCSO.

They tripled the patrol and added a command tower in the center of the neighborhood with six high-definition cameras.

"To have somebody go in and violate that by going through your things and stealing whatever they want to, it's just low, it's disgusting,” said Brilbeck.

As more people work to clean up what they can, the sheriff’s office is expecting additional victims.

“Because so many people haven't been back to their homes yet - we don't know how many victims there are,” said Brilbeck. “There are people staying in hotels right now - that have been victims that don't' even know they've been victims

The Zachary family is working to salvage what they can as they clean up their home, but say they have a long road ahead.

“Really our daily lives have just been shaken to the point where it's probably gonna take another 6-7 months to really get a grasp on what we're doing,” said Jeffrey.

The sheriff’s office has not released the name of the suspect, but there is one person in custody on a complaint of a felon in possession of a firearm, and they were able to recover some of the stolen items.

The Zachary's started a Go-Fund-Me that can be accessed here: https://gofund.me/462a8bd