Burglary suspect attempts pathetic escape, falls off ladder into pool, is later found hiding in the yard by police



A man who appeared to commit a home invasion was arrested after failing to flee the scene and falling off a ladder into a residential in-ground pool.

The suspect, identified as 36-year-old male David Verdun, was pictured on video climbing out of a Beverly Hills, California, residential window before attempting his daring escape.

With the window screen lying on the ground near the house, the alleged burglar was next seen attempting to climb on top of a patio structure with a ladder.

Verdun seemingly made multiple attempts, first slipping down the ladder before grabbing onto some brush to prevent a fall. Then, the suspect fell backward off the ladder, catching his foot in one of the bottom rungs before flailing into the pool. The ladder fell into the water after him.

Footage was captured after the home's security system alerted authorities of a break-in, ABC7 reported. Police flew a drone over the property and recorded the man's futile attempts to escape.

After climbing out of the pool, Verdun allegedly tried to hide in the yard, presumably soaking wet, but police soon located him and took him into custody.

Bumbling burglar caught on video falling into home's pool! \ud83d\ude02\n\n#BidenDementia #BidensAmerica #Trump2024
— (@)

Such drone-policing tactics have become increasingly normalized due to dwindling police staffing numbers, which in some regions is caused by police-defunding initiatives.

In Asheville, North Carolina, police have ramped up their use of drones to fill in staffing gaps and monitor crimes committed by homeless people.

With tourism down an estimated 11% in 2023, police were using drones to crack down on the aforementioned crimes. Fifteen police employees at that department gained certification to fly drones while on duty, with the department owning six of the aerial vehicles.

Also, the New York Police Department dispatched drones to monitor complaints regarding backyard parties and private social gatherings over Labor Day weekend in 2023.

During a press conference, NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said, "If a caller states there is a large crowd, a large party in a back yard, we're going to be utilizing our assets to go up and check on the party."

New York City recently abandoned a different robot-assisted pilot program, however.

In early February 2024, the NYPD ended a six-month program of a patrol robot named K5 that monitored the city's subway system. A report claimed that riders almost never used it for safety purposes.

Similar robots have been used to patrol areas in Portland, Oregon, as well.

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Beverly Hills department store bans masks because of rising crime: 'It’s what we have to do to keep the safety of our employees and our assets'

Beverly Hills department store bans masks because of rising crime: 'It’s what we have to do to keep the safety of our employees and our assets'



One department store in Beverly Hills, California, has recently implemented a new rule: no masks allowed.

Fraser Ross, owner of the Kitson department store located in Beverly Hills, posted signs last Wednesday to inform shoppers that they would not be allowed to wear a mask in the store because of recent spikes in crime.

Ross also issued the following public statement to explain the decision:

At Kitson we prioritize the safety of our staff and customers. We noticed a disturbing trend of individuals wearing masks to avoid identification in various situations including, but not limited to, shoplifting, verbal harassment, and physical assault. The mask mandate may have begun as a health precaution, but we believe it is now being used by some people for nefarious purposes. To that end, we enacted our own mandate of sorts. We do not allow wearing of masks in the Robertson store during regular business hours. Those people who wish to wear masks are free to set up an appointment for a personal shopping experience or visit our website. We also offer curbside pickup.

Ross and other store employees insisted that the move was not motivated by politics or health concerns, but rather by recent instances of violent crime in the area — and in their own store.

NBC4 Los Angeles reported that a Chanel store around the corner from Kitson had been robbed back in July, and CBSLA claimed someone broke into a nearby Neiman Marcus store using a car just a couple weeks ago.

As Ross's statement suggests, Kitson has had its own share of violent criminals, who have allegedly committed "shoplifting, verbal harassment, and physical assault" in the store, all under the relative anonymity of a face mask.

Employee Santos Hemenway echoed Ross's concerns.

"This is not something we wanted to do," Hemenway said, "but it’s what we have to do to keep the safety of our employees and our assets."

"You have to have the awareness and understand the motivation, or at least the signs of somebody who is planning to steal,” he continued. “I used to be able to be a little more lax, but now, you know, I’ve got to be on all guards. It’s definitely changed in the last year so."

Hemenway also claimed that the store is adequately furnished with guards and security cameras, but that face masks obscure people's identities, rendering these security measures essentially useless.

The mask "covers their face," Hemenway said, "the most important part of their face that we need to use when showing the police."

This new policy at Kitson diverges dramatically from the recent sentiment of many local government officials. Over the summer, LA county had strongly considered re-imposing mask mandates, but ultimately decided against it after several municipalities stated that they wouldn't comply.

LA district attorney George Gascón, who just survived another recall attempt earlier this month, has been accused of being soft on crime. Some say that his policies are directly responsible for the uptick in violent crime.


Cities in LA County say they will not enforce a new indoor mask mandate



As Los Angeles County health officials are expected to announce Thursday whether an indoor mask-wearing mandate will go back into effect, several cities in the county have announced they will not enforce a new mask order.

The cities of Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Pasadena, and Long Beach have each announced they will not enforce an indoor mask mandate if one is implemented.

"My City Council colleagues and I strongly believe the decision to wear a mask should be the choice of the individual and should not be imposed by L.A. County," El Segundo Mayor Drew Boyles said in a statement Wednesday. "Individuals should review the data available and consider their own circumstances and make their own decisions about wearing a mask. Businesses need to consider the various agencies that regulate their businesses as part of deciding how they will react to a potential change to mask requirements."

The El Segundo City Council voted unanimously against enforcing a new mask mandate in a special meeting Tuesday night.

The Beverly Hills City Council held a similar vote Monday night, determining it would not enforce a mask order, KABC-TV reported. Interestingly, Beverly Hills was among the first cities in L.A. County to adopt an outdoor mask mandate in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deadline noted.

The cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, which each operate their own independent health departments, also announced Tuesday they will not enforce a county-wide mask mandate.

Rising coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County prompted health officials to entertain the possibility of a renewed mask mandate. Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned that an indoor mask mandate may be needed to slow the spread of the virus after the county entered the high COVID-19 community level on July 14, based on criteria from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

\u201cLA County enters High COVID-19 Community level & will require masking indoors if county remains high for two consecutive weeks (effective July 29). Wearing a high quality, well-fitted respirator helps limit the spread of the highly transmissible BA.5 variant.\u201d
— LA Public Health (@LA Public Health) 1657925525

But county government officials are on the record opposing a renewed mask mandate.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Monday she does not support a mandatory mask policy.

"I am not questioning the effectiveness of wearing a mask," Barger told KABC. "I'm questioning the effectiveness of making a mandate and telling people that they have to. I think it has an opposite effect and people will choose to defy."

At Tuesday's county board meeting, Supervisor Janice Han said a mask mandate would be "very divisive."

"I honestly believe there are a significant number of the population who are not willing to accept mask mandates at this point," Hahn said. "And many of them, the ones that have contacted me, pointed out that we do have more tools now than we had at the beginning of the pandemic."

On Wednesday, the county reported 7,316 new cases and 20 new deaths. There are currently 1,280 COVID-19 hospitalizations, and the county had a case positivity rate of 16.2%.

VIDEO: Cop plays Beatles' 'Yesterday' while cellphone camera records him, presumably to trigger copyright claim so clip is blocked



Some Beverly Hills cops are getting back at a left-wing activist who takes videos of them — with a good bit of wit attached to it.

What happened?

Vice News reported that Los Angeles-area activist Sennett Devermont recorded cellphone video as he was trying to talk to uniformed Beverly Hills police officers on a sidewalk last month — but the chatter was interrupted by a familiar sound.

It was coming from Officer Julian Reyes' cellphone he was holding aloft. It was an acoustic guitar, and a man singing: "Yesterday / all my troubles seemed so far away / now it looks as though they're here to stay / oh, I believe in yesterday."

Yup, it was Paul McCartney singing the Beatles' classic "Yesterday" — arguably one of the most popular songs ever, as it was performed over 7 million times just in the 20th century — and recorded more than 1,600 times.

As you can probably guess, the Beatles rightfully are quite protective of unauthorized uses of their songs, and when they show up in videos, those clips are typically blocked.

According to Devermont, the tactic worked. He noted in his Instagram post of the interaction with police that "it seems they think playing copyrighted and licensed music will keep the word from getting out. And turns out.. they are right! I sent this video to multiple news agencies who covered the story. Most said they can't share it... why??? Because it's playing Beatles music."

Vice News said songs like "Yesterday" showing up in Instagram videos can trigger the platform's algorithmic copyright filters which can result in videos being taken down — and suspension of live streamers' accounts for repeated infractions.

A sublime idea

When the latter video began, Vice News said Devermont was talking to Sgt. Billy Fair, who used his cellphone to play "Santeria" by '90s band Sublime when Devermont was trying to talk to him in a separate video — and Devermont was quite frustrated:

More from Vice News:

This strategy isn't entirely surprising. Nick Simmons and Adam Holland, researchers at Lumen Database, which studies copyright takedowns on social media, noted last year that music in videos filmed at Black Lives Matter protests had repeatedly resulted in them being removed from social media sites on copyright grounds. They theorized that, while these removals seemed incidental, that copyright could be weaponized by police.

"Law enforcement, or indeed anyone of any ideological persuasion who was seeking to prevent videos of a particular event from being shared online, need only make sure that copyrighted audio is present with sufficiently recognizable clarity and volume in the background of a protest or other event," they wrote. "A chilling prospect indeed."

Now, we're seeing it actually happen.

What did Beverly Hills police have to say?

Beverly Hills police told Vice News in a statement that "the playing of music while accepting a complaint or answering questions is not a procedure that has been recommended by Beverly Hills Police command staff" — and that the videos of Fair were "currently under review."

To mark this sobering development, here's a live version of McCartney playing the melancholy "Yesterday" in 1965 when it was brand new:

Yesterday (With Spoken Word Intro / Live From Studio 50, New York City / 1965)youtu.be

Beverly Hills restaurant passed out invites to a speakeasy-style New Year's Eve party despite pandemic. Then the cops found out.



A Beverly Hills eatery popular with actors and other celebrities that has previously complained that COVID restrictions are hurting California restaurants reportedly planned to host a "discreet" New Year's Eve party amid the COVID pandemic.

When authorities caught wind of the speakeasy-style event, they took steps shut it down, the Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend.

What happened?

Indoor and outdoor dining are currently verboten in Los Angeles County, which includes Beverly Hills.

But evidently, that was not going to stop La Scala, an upscale Italian restaurant "known for its chopped salad and famous customers," the Times said.

According to the paper, the eatery was slipping secret invitations to the edict-breaking event into customers' take-out bags.

Pictures of the fancy invites, which asked recipients to keep the shindig on the down-low, naturally were quickly posted to social media for the world to see.

The reported notes quietly dropped into folks' dinners noted the current state of the restaurant environment in L.A. County, beginning, "Welcome back to the 20's Prohibition: Speak Easy — New Year's Eve Dinner."

The letter went on to gauge recipients' interest in the illicit affair. "We are considering taking reservations for New Year's Eve Dinner. Inside. If this is something you'd be interested in, Please let us know as soon as possible," the note said. "If enough interest we'll contact you back to secure a reservation."

The note urged recipients to "Please keep this discreet, but tell all your friends."

Merry Christmas everyone! La Scala’s Beverly Hills location is tucking these invitations to an indoor New Year’s Ev… https://t.co/3xw0vmrDSI
— Alissa Walker (@Alissa Walker)1608927309.0

Several people who posted the images of the invites were quick to alert the local authorities, which led to local officials working to put the kibosh on any sort of nefarious repast.

A spokesman for the City of Beverly Hills told the Times that local authorities contacted La Scala to remind the management about the county's current dining proscriptions.

Several social media users reportedly tagged the Beverly Hill Police Department to make sure they were aware of the scofflaws who dared to consider doing something to attempt to save their struggling business.

The BHPD thanked concerned citizens for making sure the department was aware of the rumored speakeasy event and assured them that "Code Enforcement is aware and will be handling this matter."

@GottaSaveBucky @awalkerinLA Thank you for tagging the BHPD. Beverly Hills Code Enforcement is aware and will be ha… https://t.co/97SadTB8AC
— Beverly Hills Police (@Beverly Hills Police)1608954163.0

The Times said it attempted to get a comment from La Scala, but received no response.

This speakeasy party wouldn't be the first time the restaurant has taken an anti-lockdown stance.

On Sept. 14, La Scala posted a complaint to Instagram about Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman's COVID restrictions and their impact on local businesses.

"Hey @lesterfriedman_bh @bh_chamber you're hurting our Restaurants! WTF!" La Scala posted with a pair of graphics calling out the mayor and complaining that "now we can't even have our umbrellas that have been up & approved for 18 years!!"

The restaurant added the hashtags "#YouSuck" and "#BeverlyHillsLeadershipSucks."

Big 'Freedom Rally' in Beverly Hills ends after attack on Trump supporter by counterprotesters and unlawful assembly declared



In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton expectedly and handily beat Donald Trump in the overwhelmingly blue Los Angeles County by a margin of 2,464,364 to 769,743. Beverly Hills, which is in the Democratic stronghold of Los Angeles County, has seen several well-attended pro-Trump rallies this election season. On Saturday, the last pro-Trump rally in Beverly Hills before the 2020 presidential election occurred, but it was marred by violence after counterprotesters stoked tensions.

A large group of pro-Trump supporters gathered in Beverly Hills for a festive "USA Freedom Rally" on Saturday afternoon. Later in the day, the rally morphed into a MAGA parade with supporters chanting: "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

On the ground at the final Beverly Hills Freedom Rally before the election. While it was scheduled to start at 3, p… https://t.co/rIdZtSss0Z
— Samuel Braslow (@Samuel Braslow)1604177577.0


The crowd has started spilling into Santa Monica Boulevard https://t.co/HtVKbStBRQ
— Samuel Braslow (@Samuel Braslow)1604185831.0


Imagine going out for a latte in Beverly Hills and suddenly, this... https://t.co/RSCXhADDbn
— Benny (@Benny)1604202508.0


Beverly Hills comes out in support of Trump. https://t.co/zXEFXqx6fr
— Ian Miles Cheong (@Ian Miles Cheong)1603587200.0


However, even before the 3 p.m. rally kicked off, black-clad counterprotesters dressed in tactical gear marched from Roxbury Park towards the USA Freedom Rally. Police separated the two groups for the most part, but at one point a Trump supporter and a mob of counterprotesters converged.

Video shows a throng of demonstrators dressed in all-black swarm a man holding an American flag. Then a person seems to pepper-spray the man with the flag; he retaliated by swinging his flag pole at them. As more members of the mob advance towards him, he takes more swings to keep the distance between them.

A man wearing a black helmet with the acronym "ACAB," which stands for "All Cops Are Bastards," attempts to wrestle the American flag from the Trump supporter. Then several other black-clad members jump in and pummel the man from all sides. One person is seen hitting the Trump supporter in the back of the head with a pole.

The man gets away for a second and then is clobbered again by the mob. They punch, kick, and smash him with objects as he is defenseless on the ground.

Police finally intervene to separate the two groups. The Trump supporter is taken aside for medical attention and was treated by the Beverly Hills Fire Department. The Trump supporter is seen holding his arm in pain and with a bloody face.

What led up to that. You can see them trying to steal the flag and a scuffle beforehand. Is that an Armenian flag?… https://t.co/pQFSDutIQY
— Kitty Shackleford (@Kitty Shackleford)1604180294.0


Trump supporter who went into counter protesters gets injured https://t.co/QKD06xMrHT
— Samuel Braslow (@Samuel Braslow)1604181730.0

An unlawful assembly was declared shortly before 2:40 p.m.

"Approximately 40 protesters did assemble at Roxbury Park and then marched to the USA Freedom Rally," Lt. Max Subin of the Beverly Hills Police Department told Fox News. "A couple of the members got into a violent attack on a pro-Trump member. It was at that point that an unlawful assembly was declared."

Subin said there were no arrests.

As many people as there were at the Beverly Hills rally, it paled in comparison as to the thousands of people who gathered on Saturday night for President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump crowd in Butler PA is jaw-dropping https://t.co/EeGNpqWMFd
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸)1604187408.0


HAPPENING NOW! #MAGA🇺🇸🦅 https://t.co/zVkWamWeD7
— Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅 (@Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅)1604187667.0


Passenger in rapper's vehicle accused of pointing gun at person amid pro-Trump rally in Beverly Hills — and is arrested on weapon charges



A passenger in a rapper's vehicle was arrested Saturday on weapon charges after being accused of pointing a gun at a person amid a rally supporting President Donald Trump in Beverly Hills, California.

What are the details?

Beverly Hills police said they received a report just after 5 p.m. of an individual saying someone in a vehicle pointed a gun at him near South Santa Monica Boulevard and North Beverly Drive — and that he took note of the license plate. A vehicle with a matching plate was stopped after driving past the pro-Trump rally, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The vehicle's driver was rapper Offset, the Times said. Offset is the husband of famed singer Cardi B, known far and wide for the sexually charged song "WAP," which glorifies woman as prostitutes.

Offset recorded part of the interaction with police on Instagram Live.

"You just watched somebody beat my car up with a flag!" Offset tells an officer who repeatedly asks him to shut off the vehicle. But Offset insists on keeping his hands on the steering wheel and threatens to sue cops.

"Y'all know who I am?" he asks police.

Soon officers unlock the driver-side door and pull Offset out. Here's the clip. (Content warning: Language):

Whoa Offset was just arrested on IG live, like just now https://t.co/PTp4sEtAA5
— philip lewis (@philip lewis)1603585010.0

What happened next?

Offset was released after questioning, the Times said. But passenger Marcelo Almanzar, 20, was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a loaded firearm in public, police said. Almanzar remained behind bars in lieu of $35,000 bail, the paper said, citing jail records.

There were multiple reports that Offset was arrested, but police denied those accusations.

Almanzar is reportedly a cousin of Cardi B, who also arrived at the scene at one point, the Times said, citing videos posted to social media.

The individual who told police a gun was pointed at him declined to press charges for that, police said.

'Aggressive Trump supporters'

An Offset publicist, Derrian Perry, told the paper in a statement that the rapper was detained "following an attack by aggressive Trump supporters."

BET, citing videos posted to Twitter, said just prior to the police stop, Offset and Cardi B. were seen making their way through a crowd where several people were waving Trump flags.

"Offset thanks his fans for their support and wishes everyone peace and safety during these trying times," the statement added, according to the Times. "He encourages everyone to get out and vote because nothing changes if nothing changes."

The paper also reported that Offset's representatives emphasized he was not the aggressor and that he complied despite having guns drawn on him and receiving conflicting directions from police.

"Offset's current focus is encouraging younger voters to get to the polls in order to keep incidents like this from continuously happening," a representative said, according to the Times.

Police estimated that more than 2,500 people attended the pro-Trump rally.