Folks living near the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfire are on high alert after a resident confronted a suspicious hiker on a remote road in Topanga ... and now cops are involved.
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00:00In the midst of this just unimaginable devastation in Los Angeles, and I got to tell you, you can watch it on TV, but boy, it doesn't have the impact when you just see it.
00:15And it is unbelievable what is going on around our fair city.
00:20And there are a lot of people who are angry about it, and angry about reports of arsonists, people that have been seen in neighborhoods, some of them arrested, where local residents feel that these people were starting fires, if not the fires that are burning, but trying to start other fires. Case in point.
00:40Well, the authorities are actually honing in on a place in Pacific Palisades, or a street on Pacific Palisades.
00:47At the top of the, on the highlands.
00:49Which they think is the origin of the Pacific Palisades fire.
00:54But we got a very interesting video.
00:58This was shot Sunday at 5.20 in the afternoon in Topanga Canyon, one of the areas that was hit hard by these wildfires.
01:08And it is a hiker that somebody saw, and one of the residents in this area realized it wasn't somebody who lives in that area.
01:18It's a small community, and everybody knows everybody.
01:21And this person seemed to be a stranger.
01:24And there was something.
01:25And seemed to be wandering, and it just caught this resident's eye.
01:29On a fire trail.
01:30Right.
01:31Right after firefighters had actually cleared, and you'll hear him reference a bulldozer going through, where they're clearing the path so that there's no vegetation to burn.
01:41And this guy comes walking along, wandering, and a local resident gave him the third degree.
01:47You're lost? Where are you trying to go? How can I help you?
01:50Is there a trailhead nearby?
01:54Where are you trying to go? I can help you get there.
01:56I'm trying to get off the trail.
02:02To where? I can help you, but you have to help me understand where you're going.
02:08Well, sir, I'm actually not from here.
02:14I can tell.
02:15My son lives here.
02:16Who's your son?
02:18I'd rather not say.
02:23It's a little suspicious. I'm just going to let you know that, you know.
02:27You're hiking around with a backpack in a fire zone, following a bulldozer, who's the last man out of here, you know.
02:33What's in your backpack?
02:34Basically, a traveling kit.
02:40Definitely not any, like, lighter food or anything of the sort.
02:47If I come over there and I find lighter fluid, man, you're not going to like how it ends, bro.
02:52I'm a nice human being, but if you're lighting fires up here, bro, like...
02:55You don't seem like a nice human being.
02:58I don't?
02:59It seems like you're trying to accost me.
03:02No, no, I'm just trying to do what's good for my community, sir.
03:07Mister, I don't know what that means.
03:10I don't know. You know, no offense, bro. You kind of deal with it.
03:13Yeah, and this video, by the way, was sent to police, and they are investigating.
03:21It is weird, and you get why residents who are on edge would be taken aback by...
03:28They're being vigilant right now because, look, we're not saying this guy is an arsonist.
03:33It's just weird, and we contacted the police.
03:37They said they were actually having a meeting on that this morning, on this video.
03:42But it is...
03:43I got to tell you, they've arrested three arsonists today, or suspected arsonists.
03:48So this is just a thing that's going on right now in the midst of this.
03:53They still don't know how all of these fires started, but when you see things like this...
03:58And by the way, at the end of this video, we didn't show this, but the guy says...
04:03Well, actually, it's right after you saw how the video ended.
04:06The guy says, look, I'm sick of this,
04:08and it almost sounds like he's going to confront the stranger.
04:14We don't know.
04:14We don't know if he actually did confront him.
04:17We just know that the video was shared with police, and now they're investigating.
04:20So this is the times we live in now, right?
04:22We've seen this in response to a lot of disasters where everybody is more diligent.
04:27They were all very sensitive to anything that might look out of place.
04:32I'm not sure that individual citizens have a right to stop somebody and accost them like that,
04:36but that said, if we see strange things, we're going to intervene at this time.
04:39Well, if you believe a crime is being committed, right, you can...
04:42Well, he didn't do any...
04:44So far, what we saw on video is fine.
04:46I mean, you're allowed to ask people questions about...
04:48The guy could walk away if he wanted to.
04:50He could have just walked away.
04:51But there was a latent threat behind that, right?
04:52No.
04:53He just said, I want answers, but he didn't do it.
04:56I mean, he's far enough away that I don't think he did anything wrong.
05:01Hi, Melissa from Washington.
05:03We're dealing with an area that's just had major devastation.
05:08First off, why are you up there hiking?
05:10That's obviously going to look fishy.
05:12He gets confronted.
05:13He immediately jumps to...
05:15There's not lighter fluid in there.
05:17I mean, honestly, I wouldn't be caught dead in that area right now.
05:21So the biggest question is, what is he really doing up there?
05:24And did you just get lost up there?
05:27Where are you going?
05:28I got to tell you, as somebody who's been a reporter for many, many years,
05:32if I was the guy holding that camera asking those questions,
05:37my spidey senses are going up higher and higher
05:40each time he gives this kind of evasive answer.
05:43Yeah.
05:43And, you know, who's your son?
05:45I'd rather not say.
05:47And then I don't have lighter fluid in my backpack.
05:50Why did you jump to that?
05:52Yeah.
05:52Well, anyway.
05:54Anyway.
05:54We'll see.
05:55We will see.