In Their Own Words

“I only wanted to make a sandwich.”

--Johnnie Victoria, 35, above, an Army veteran on probation caught at 2:30 a.m. with a crate containing packages of ham, hot dogs, bacon and Spam, two loaves of bread, four cartons of cigarettes and $201.50 in miscellaneous rolls of coin.

*

“C’mon man, I just wanted some free stuff like everyone else.”

--Daniel James O’Dell Andrews, 26, arrested with nine cassette tapes and three compact discs.

*

“I love Los Angeles. My intention was not to loot. . . . I was tired, I’d been smoking (cocaine) and didn’t care about nothing. I just wanted some rest. I went into the store in order to find a place to go to sleep.”

--Gregory Robertson, 33, a transient and habitual PCP and cocaine user caught in a ransacked Pico-Union Thrifty store.

*

“I’m Christian. I have no vices.”

--Cesar Deleon, 34, a welder arrested outside a Chief Auto Parts store in the Rampart area April 30.

*

“I didn’t loot this gun. I just bought it from a ‘smoker.’ ”

--Thomas Edward Blackwell, 31, above, using a street term for riot arsonists after he was stopped in violation of the curfew and found to have an AK-47 assault rifle.

*

“I entered the store to steal, I wanted anything I could find. I knew this was wrong. I don’t know why I did it.”

--Gustavo Rojas Alcala, 20, found hiding in a Top Value store in Long Beach.

*

“Me, my brother, another big Samoan and a black guy all went down there. It was the big Samoan’s idea to get a radio.”

--Faapusa Matau, 26, arrested outside a Radio Shack in Long Beach.

*

“That day I had just arrived from work and went to eat at the place of a friend. Then somebody came by and said that the liquor store was open. I went in with some friends when the police arrived. . . . I’m poor but I’m not a thief.”

--Carlos Olivo, 29, a street-corner laborer from El Salvador who was caught inside a Pico-Union liquor store.

*

“I’m pregnant and I don’t want my baby to be born in jail.”

--Brenda Haywood, 22, caught looting shoes at 5:54 a.m.