A Los Angeles content creator waited 58 minutes for 911 to pick up his call after his home was burglarized, he said.
Evan Lovett, host of the “L.A. in a Minute” podcast, returned to his Studio City home just after 9 p.m. Friday after his 11-year-old son’s baseball game. A glass door in the back of the house was smashed in and valuables, including jewelry and a safe with items left to him by his deceased father, were gone.
After searching the home for intruders, Lovett said he called 911 and was placed on hold for 58 minutes. “This s— is unnerving,” he said in a video posted to social media.
“What if my son was choking? What if my wife slipped and fell in the shower and cracked her head open?” he said in an interview with The Times on Sunday.
Police publicly disputed his estimate for how long it took to respond to his call, with L.A. Police Capt. Ray Valois telling NBC4 the call was picked up in 74 seconds and then was de-prioritized as a non-emergency call.
Lovett rebutted Valois’ claims and said he had witnesses to prove it. Several of his neighbors had come to his home to help and were listening while he called 911 on speaker, Lovett said. When he called, he said, a two-part recording told him he was placed on hold, then said there was a heavy call volume and not to hang up.
“There was absolutely no human being that we heard from, until 58 minutes.”
Once dispatch picked up, Lovett said, L.A. police officers arrived to take a report within six minutes. By then, it was about 10:12 p.m.
His Wi-Fi-enabled Ring cameras had detected no movement between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., he said, leading officers to believe a group of thieves used a Wi-Fi jammer to disrupt the cameras and enter unseen.
Lovett, who worked as a sports staff writer for The Times from 1998 to 1999, said he’d like to use his platform to start a dialogue on how to correct what he sees as a negative trajectory for Los Angeles.
Lovett’s podcast regularly focuses on history, news and current events shaping Los Angeles. But earlier on the day of the break-in, he’d posted an episode in which he described feeling despondent about the condition of the city. “From the fires to ICE raids to the political blame game to Hollywood’s continued struggle, the atmosphere of gloom is pervading Los Angeles,” the description reads. Then the break-in happened.
Now he feels he should speak out, given his own experience, as well as the staff shortages that exist in the L.A. Police Department and 911 call centers.
“When it shows up at your front door, and I have a platform that reaches important people and decision-making people, I’m like, I gotta say something,” Lovett said. “Let’s be constructive and let’s all work for the betterment of the city without getting mad at each other, without pointing the finger at each other, because the air is heavy enough in Los Angeles as it is right now. Let’s work on doing it in a positive, uplifting way.”
Since the burglary, he said, several local officials including his City Council representative, Nithya Raman, had reached out to him.
The LAPD did not immediately respond Sunday to a Times request for 911 call reports that could show what happened with Lovett’s emergency call.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
