A North Bay community is upset after homes damaged by the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa have been taken over by teens who have been breaking into and damaging them after hosting illegal house parties.
Just weeks before her rebuild was complete, Fountaingrove resident Rosemary Yates suffered a devastating setback. She said that last Friday, dozens of teens broke into her home, had a party and cause thousands of dollars in damages.
Walls had holes, an armchair was hurled down the stairs and a closet was used as a toilet.
That was just the latest in a string of parties where young people find a home nobody is living in and share the address on social media.
Back in August, Emily Pope got home to find TVs and a computer stolen from her residence.
“But then it was so much more than that,” she said. “In my dining room, there were cigarettes everywhere and a box of pills and there was glass everywhere.”
She asked a friend with kids at a local school to see if they knew about a party.
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“She sent me a screenshot with a photo of my front door, my address and a time saying party at 9 o’clock,” said Pope.
She said the teens came back to her home the following night when she was home with her three children.
“I started taking photos of license plates and called 911 and said, ‘I’m here and people are showing up at my house,’” she said.
Pope and her family worry about the possibility of another break-in.
“My 9-year-old daughter is still scared,” she said. “She often has nightmares thinking that people are going to break in and somebody’s going to kidnap her.”
Santa Rosa police said they are actively tracking down more leads and they have made no arrests yet.
“I don’t know if someone was assaulted,” Pope said. “There was vomit and broken fingernails.”
Homeowners said they want police to do more and the teens responsible to face consequences.
