Four men charged with looting Central City business

Joshua Hogan

Timothy Hartford

Gregory Spivey

Irvin Fox

Four men were arrested Tuesday evening on charges of looting a Central City business, police said.

Police were called to a report of men breaking into a business at Seventh and Danneel around 9 p.m., and arrived to find a man outside about to enter it through a hole that had been kicked in, said NOPD Sixth District Commander Bob Bardy. Three others were found inside, though the business had been closed for hours, Bardy said.

The four men — Irvin Fox, 31; Joshua Hogan, 23; Gregory Spivey, 56; and Timothy Hartford, 27 — were each charged with looting and unauthorized entry of a business, Bardy said.

According to Louisiana law:

Looting is the intentional entry by a person without authorization into any dwelling or other structure belonging to another and used in whole or in part as a home or place of abode by a person, or any structure belonging to another and used in whole or in part as a place of business, or any vehicle, watercraft, building, plant, establishment, or other structure, movable or immovable, in which normal security of property is not present by virtue of a hurricane, flood, fire, act of God, or force majeure of any kind, or by virtue of a riot, mob, or other human agency, and the obtaining or exerting control over or damaging or removing property of the owner.

Whoever commits the crime of looting during the existence of a state of emergency, which has been declared pursuant to law by the governor or the chief executive officer of any parish, may be fined not less than five thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than three years nor more than fifteen years without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.