Guns Stolen from LA Mayoral Candidate Rep. Karen Bass’ Home

During the weekend, Los Angeles Mayoral candidate and Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) had her house broken into with only two firearms ultimately being stolen.

According to Bass and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Congresswoman returned to her Baldwin Vista home late Friday night to discover that it had been broken into and burglarized. The LAPD were quickly called to the scene, where it was found that the only things missing were two firearms that had been taken from inside a lockbox. While not immediately reported, Bass announced the robbery the next day.

“Last night, I came home and discovered that my house had been broken into and burglarized. LAPD was called, and I appreciate their assistance,” said Bass on Saturday. “At this time, it appears that only two firearms, despite being safely and securely stored, were stolen. Cash, electronics and other valuables were not. It’s unnerving and, unfortunately, it’s something that far too many Angelenos have faced.”

Bass added that she still felt safe in Los Angeles, and that on a scale of 1 to 10, she felt that she was 10, or completely safe, after the robbery.

However, the robbery quickly added more scrutiny to Bass. Last week, Bass’ 12 point lead over Developer Rick Caruso in the LA Mayoral race began to slip following Bass being tied to a massive federal corruption case concerning how a USC degree of hers was paid for. With the robbery, concerns over her public safety stance, as well as crime in LA, have come up again. Many law enforcement members in LA, specifically those who are part of the LAPD Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) union, have been apprehensive of Bass due to concerns over where she stands on policing as well as her voting record in Congress, with Bass being amongst one of the worst Congressional members when it comes to vote attendance.

The Bass home robbery

“This was a very odd robbery,” explained Terry Mueller, a former police detective who is now a private investigator in LA specializing in lost property, to the Globe on Monday. “Two firearms are stolen, and to her own admission, nothing else like jewelry or cash was taken. And she said they were in a lockbox. You know, it may have been just a random robbery, some guy broke in, cracked open a lockbox, found two guns, then ran with them, but that being the full story seems unlikely. Most robbers tend to be encouraged by a find like that and go after other valuables. Something doesn’t add up.”

“And because this is Bass, it is political. But the big thing is that she is just kind of ignoring the crime. She says she still feels very safe despite the fact that two guns were stolen from her. I mean, who thinks that after a robbery? She could have easily made it into a press conference condemning crime in the city or use it to push for her wanting to expand the LAPD. She’s said that she wanted to increase LAPD patrols. Use the robbery for that. No, instead she is pretending everything is fine when it isn’t. I had to cover some robberies of politicians and  otherwise famous people before, and they always gave statements about wanting to increase policing or wanting to get these people to justice. There was a pro athlete who was robbed of gym equipment from his garage I responded to and he promised to hunt the earth for those people. Bass  just quickly pushed it aside. It’s just not a normal reaction.”

As of Monday, it has not been seen what the robbery and its effects have had on Mayoral race polls.