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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told would-be thieves that law enforcement in the Sunshine State would not tolerate anyone taking advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, warning: “You loot, we shoot.”
“I’d also just remind potential looters – you never know what you’re walking into,” DeSantis, 44, said during a press conference Wednesday.
“People have a right to defend their property. This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment, and I’ve seen signs in different people’s yards in the past after these disasters, and I would say it’s probably here – ‘You loot, we shoot.'”
The governor was responding to reports of people trying to loot in Steinhatchee, a town of 537 people in Taylor County, Florida, where the Category 3 storm made landfall.
DeSantis called it “ridiculous” that anyone would try to loot just hours after Idalia’s 125 mph winds and torrential storm surge wreaked havoc on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
“I’ve told all of our personnel at the state level, you know, you protect people’s property and we are not going to tolerate any looting in the aftermath of a natural disaster,” the governor and Republican presidential primary candidate added.
“You never know what’s behind that door. If you go break into somebody’s house and you’re trying to loot, these are people that are going to be able to defend themselves and their families,” he added.
“Don’t even think about looting. Don’t even think about taking advantage of people in this vulnerable situation,” DeSantis said at the time, claiming that some people were “bringing boats” onto storm-ravaged islands and “trying to ransack people’s homes.”
“I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home, and I would not wanna chance that if I were you, given that we’re a Second Amendment state,” he added, again noting a “You loot, we shoot” sign he observed on a boarded-up business.
The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees Steinhatchie, did not respond to a request for comment on looting in the area.
DeSantis issued a similar warning last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian – a Category 4 storm that made landfall in southwest Florida in September 2022, killing at least 149 people and becoming the costliest storm in state history.
“Don’t even think about looting. Don’t even think about taking advantage of people in this vulnerable situation,” DeSantis said at the time, claiming that some people were “bringing boats” onto storm-ravaged islands and “trying to ransack people’s homes.”
During that hurricane, 28 people were arrested in Lee County, Florida, on charges related to looting in the aftermath of Iandfall, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
DeSantis has taken a break from the campaign trail to focus on Idalia.
The governor flew back to Tallahassee from the first caucus state of Iowa on Saturday night and has been in the Sunshine State since, regularly updating citizens on the storm’s path and the state government’s response.
It is not clear when DeSantis, who is running some 40 points behind former President Donald Trump in national polls, will return to the campaign trail.
“You do what you need to do,” DeSantis said Tuesday when asked how he’ll be focused on Idalia rather than his White House ambitions.
“So that’s what we’re doing. It’s going to be no different than what we did during Hurricane Ian. I’m hoping that this storm is not as catastrophic as Hurricane Ian was, but we’re gonna do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important.”
DeSantis also noted that when Hurricane Ian struck, “We were in the midst of a governor campaign. I had all kinds of stuff scheduled, not just in Florida — around the country we were doing different things.”
The governor won his re-election bid against Democrat Charlie Crist in a landslide just weeks after the catastrophic storm.
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