During times of emergency, the best part of humanity is often seen.
But unfortunately, there are others who take advantage of chaos to commit crime.
Communities surrounding the Oroville area were ordered to evacuate Sunday after the Butte County Sheriff's Department said an eroding hole was found in the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. After working with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the decision was made.
The Butte County Sheriff addressed reports of looting in the evacuated Oroville areas during a new conference Sunday night stating at the time, there were no incidents of looting but the department was aware of a couple businesses that were broken into. However, there was no confirmation by the department the incidents were directly related to the evacuations.
Looting is defined as stealing goods from a place, particularly on a large scale following a riot or catastrophe, such as the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri riots or the L.A. riots in 1992.
ABC10 reached out to the Oroville Police Department and the Marysville Police Department and learned of several incidents related to burglary and vandalism that occurred from Sunday night into Monday morning.
However, there were no reports on large scale looting in businesses or homes. Here's a look at what did happen:
The Oroville Police Department received reports of 205 incidents overnight, which is considered a pretty busy night, according to the department's spokesperson, Gil Zarate.
Although not all the incidents are related to break-ins or vandalism, there were quite a few that were.
The department looked into at least five residential burglary calls and two commercial burglaries.
In one incident, a suspect broke into Tony's Food & Liquor and took off with a garbage can full of alcohol, according to Zarate. Police were able to arrest the suspect following the incident.
Another burglary happened at the Oroville Dollar Tree store during the evacuation process Sunday night, said Zarate. The suspect is still at large.
There were also a string of vandalism reports, where rocks were thrown into windows including at two businesses. In addition, there was a report of a tennis court being vandalized, according to Zarate.
Zarate also said there were at least five occasions where people hanging around businesses were asked to leave by police.
It's important to note, many incidents reported in Oroville were not related to burglaries or vandalism.
"There were a lot of welfare checks," Zarate said.
The city of Marysville also experienced some break-ins Sunday night.
The Marysville Farmer's Marketplace had a front window smashed and beer and grocery items stolen around 8 p.m., according Jason Garringer, spokesperson for the Marysville Police Department.
The River's Edge Bar & Grill in Marysville also had their windows were broken last night.
In addition, there were reports of home burglaries and of suspects casing residential areas with baseball bats, according to Garringer.
"We're taking things very seriously," Garringer said. "We're out there patrolling at night."
