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Authorities arrested a bunch of music fans over the weekend at HARD Summer at Whittier Narrows Recreation Park, including a dude who tried sneaking into the fest in a ridiculous way.
L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. deputy Johnie Jones told LAist that of the 67 arrested on Saturday, there were seven felony arrests. One of those taken into custody was a guy who allegedly stole the shirt off of an event worker's back in an effort to sneak into the sold-out, two-day fest. (It seriously sounds like some sort of scheming that would come out of a slapstick comedy like The Three Stooges.)
"People really wanted to get in there," Jones said. "People didn’t have tickets and were rushing the fences and going over the fences."
Six of the felony arrests were for suspicion of selling ecstasy, and 60 other arrests were for using fake IDs. The L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. deputies and Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) officers were patrolling the areas during the weekend. They are still tallying up the arrests for Sunday.
Acts like Tiesto, Axwell and Disclosure performed at the fest. Event heads moved HARD Summer from last year's spot in downtown's State Historic Park to Whittier Narrows Recreation Park this year. Last August, 21-year-old Jonathan M. Reyes died at HARD summer. It was initially reported that he may have died from a drug overdose, but an autopsy report later revealed that he died from natural causes.
UPDATE 4:40 p.m.: Jones told LAist that there were 73 arrests on Sunday alone, but he noted that they were almost all misdemeanors where deputies just issued citations and released them. There were five felony arrests for drug possession, one for grand theft because someone stole someone's ticket and went running, and another person punched an ABC officer in the face as he was trying to detain him.
[h/t: San Gabriel Valley Tribune]
