A married couple from Oregon are suspected of impersonating firefighters to enter an evacuation zone around the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles with a firetruck that may have been bought after being decommissioned in Northern California.
The couple — 31-year-old Dustin Nehl and 44-year-old Jennifer Nehl — were arrested on Saturday by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies on suspicion of impersonating a firefighter and entering an evacuation zone. Dustin Nehl also has a criminal history in Oregon related to criminal mischief and arson. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said neither had a criminal history in California.
The couple were arrested after officers in a Los Angeles Police Department unit patrolling through the Palisades Fire area saw a fire truck that did not seem to be legitimate. LAPD then contacted the county sheriff’s department to check; sheriff’s deputies contacted the couple in the fire truck as they tried to enter an evacuation zone.
The deputies noticed that the suspects were wearing turnout gear, helmets and radios with Cal Fire t-shirts under the gear. The suspects also claimed they were from the “Roaring River Fire Department” in Oregon; a volunteer fire department by that name exists in North Carolina, but not in Oregon. According the the sheriff’s department press release, the decomissioned truck was bought at an auction.
They admitted they were in the evacuation zone on Friday, the sheriff’s department said; the couple were then arrested and the truck was impounded.
It was not immediately clear Monday what the couple’s intentions were had they been able to enter the evacuation zone freely. Several people have already been charged with looting or arson during the latest L.A. wildfires.
The L.A. Times reported that the truck was originally used by a Northern California fire department and was decommissioned about 30 years ago before being auctioned off.
Dustin Nehl previously served five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to several crimes related to a water facility, a golf course and a park in the city of Woodburn, Oregon, according to a report from TV station KATU. He was originally suspected of two charges of arson, four charges of possession of a device, four charges of manufacturing a device and one charge of mischief, according to Oregon records.
The TV station reported that the crimes involved setting fires and homemade combustible devices beginning in 2013. Dustin Nehl was sentenced to five years in prison and 3 years’ post-prison supervision.