An unknown suspect broke into the building that houses the Santa Monica Daily Press (SMDP) office last week damaging most offices in the property and ransacking several.
The suspect is believed to have broken the window of a vacant office to gain entry to the building and then used a fire extinguisher from the building to smash the door handles of most suites, forcing doors open that were not dead-bolted.
While the building is predominantly vacant, a handful of offices, including the Legal Aid office and the Daily Press remain. While some tenants said they would close until further notice, SMDP remains open.
The building has been repeatedly broken into by homeless suspects during SMDP’s occupancy. One suspect attempted to climb over the building’s fencing along 5th Street, fell and impaled their arm on the spiked fence posts. The fire department had to cut away the spike and transport that suspect to the hospital with it still attached.
Multiple individuals have gained access to the garage over the years either to harass tenants in their vehicles, attempt access to the main building or build encampments. The building’s security guard was stabbed while trying to remove a homeless man from an exterior stairwell.
At least one suspect used an umbrella handle to damage the building’s garage gates earlier this year while also damaging the security panels from pedestrian gates in a way that prevented tenants from accessing the building.
Most recently a homeless woman gained access to the stairwell and built an encampment that obstructed the entryway to the second floor.
The break-ins come a week after squatters were removed from the building next to the SMDP offices.
About a dozen homeless squatters were removed from the city owned property on the 1600 block of 5th Street. In that case, multiple individuals had called to report suspicious activity in the building and when SMPD officers arrived, they found ten people living in what used to be an office building. The property has been vacant for more than a decade and is considered surplus land by the City.
After removing the first group, city contractors returned to the property to begin a week’s worth of cleanup and another two homeless individuals were found in the property.
+ + + UPDATE + + +
On Monday, April 29, just days after the break-ins occurred, a homeless man attempted to set fire to the office building at 1640 5th Street. The individual approached the building from the south end of the block where 5th Street dead ends at the freeway offramp and adjacent to The People Concern service center.
When the man reached the front door of the offices, he crouched down and set fire to debris he had gathered in the corner of the door. After being confronted by Daily Press staff, the suspect threw the lit debris into the storm drain under the building, igniting a small fire. The suspect walked away at a leisurely pace, turning west onto Colorado and then north through Palisades Park.
matt@smdp.com