4 Hemet City-Owned Vehicles Torched

[Borderwatch]

4 Hemet City-Owned Vehicles Torched
HEMET, Calif. (CBS) ―

Four Hemet City vehicles parked outside a city lot were torched late Tuesday night, according to a report on the Press-Enterprise newspaper's website.

Hemet police responded to reports of a fire and arrived to discover several city code enforcement pickups were torched and destroyed, the newspaper reported.

As a result of the incident, Hemet police shut down the area around Florida Avenue.

No injuries were reported and Hemet police are viewing the incident as a threat against the department, Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana told the newspaper early Wednesday morning.

Hemet Police are currently investigating the cause of the fires.

The incident comes as the tense atmosphere surrounding a California police department plagued by booby trap attacks has been stepped up a notch following the latest threat against officers.

Someone called 911 at about 5:45 p.m. last Friday saying a police car would be blown up in the Hemet-San Jacinto area in the next 24 to 48 hours, Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana said.

"We're heightening the alert," Dana told The Press-Enterprise at the time.

The caller said the attack would be in retaliation for the law enforcement sweep against the Vagos Motorcycle Club earlier this week. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department has not been able to confirm the threat, Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said.

About 30 members of the Vagos, California's largest motorcycle gang, were arrested in Riverside County on last Wednesday, as part of a crackdown across the state and in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

The gang specializes in methamphetamine sales, identity theft and violence, Riverside County sheriff's Capt. Walter Meyer said.

At that news conference, Dana, District Attorney Rod Pacheco, state Attorney General Brown and others announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Hemet-area booby traps aimed at officers in recent weeks.

First, a natural gas pipe was shoved through a hole drilled into the roof of the gang enforcement unit's headquarters. The building filled with flammable vapor but an officer smelled the danger before anyone was hurt.

Then, a ballistic contraption was attached to a sliding security fence around the building. An officer opening the black steel gate triggered the mechanism, which sent a bullet within eight inches of his face.

In another attempted booby trap attack, some kind of explosive device was attached to a police officer's unmarked car while he went into a convenience store.

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