Suspects arrested for vandalizing abandoned Hollywood Hills mansion, police say
HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Two suspects have been arrested on suspicion of vandalizing a Hollywood Hills mansion that has been continually defaced with graffiti and even taken over by squatters, police confirmed Thursday.
Officers who were on patrol on the 7500 block of Mulholland Drive made the arrests Wednesday morning, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Some community members alerted the officers that two suspects had just damaged the property with spray paint before fleeing in a white Mercedes sedan. They found the car a short time after and took them into custody.
They've been identified as Jacob Smith and Thomia Fagan.
Several spray cans and a loaded unregistered firearm was found in one of their bags, police said.
The arrests come after neighbors along Multiview and Mulholland drives described the abandoned mansion as a headache and safety hazard. The home has been covered in graffiti from taggers, and squatters have been coming and going to the property for more than two years.
One neighbor said 911 has been called several times the past week.
"Every time we call the police will come and they'll clear it out, and then within an hour or two, five more people are there and staying the night," said the neighbor, who didn't want to be identified.
Eyewitness News captured what appeared to be three taggers leaving the home last week with private security stepping in to get them out.
According to public records, the property owner is John Powers Middleton - the same person who owns another Hollywood Hills mansion that was also taken over by squatters. Eyewitness News reported on the run-down conditions at that property a year ago.
Middleton's father owns the Philadelphia Phillies.
