Deputies rescued two homeless women Monday — one requiring medical attention found unresponsive after three days of immobility due to her obesity and the other requiring county custody of her pets.
Both women were reported to be receiving the care and attention they need. The animals seized — three dogs, one cat — were turned over to officers with the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.
The two cases — although unrelated — emphasize the particular needs presented to deputies assigned to the Crime Prevention Unit of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responding to calls of crises related to homelessness.
Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, joined CPU deputies on their patrol Monday.
In the first rescue, just before 10:30 a.m., a woman weighing an estimated 400 pounds was found by CPU deputies and, with the help of firefighters, taken to the hospital.
“We don’t know how long the homeless woman was immobilized,” Miller said.
“When Crime Prevention Unit deputies found her today, she was gravely disabled, and unable to move,” she said.
“She was in an encampment near Soledad Canyon Road and Langside,” Miller said.
“Deputies with the MET (Mental Evaluation Team) were also dispatched out, and they made contact with the woman at (the) hospital,” she said.
A woman matching the same description was rescued under similar circumstances in late April 2018. In that case, a homeless woman, obese and reportedly suicidal, was found living in a makeshift one-room shack built by the previous occupants — two homeless Vietnam veterans — on the contaminated cleanup site inside the Whittaker-Bermite property.
She was taken by CPU deputies to caregivers at the Bridge to Home, where she was expected to receive care and attention.
The second rescue made by the CPU team Monday of a homeless woman involved rescuing three dogs and one cat.
“There was another homeless woman that CPU deputies made contact out in the field with,” Miller said.
“She was found to have a no-bail warrant for parole violation. On parole for receiving stolen property,” she said.
Animal Control officers were called to take custody of the animals.
They also took custody of a seven puppies found in a cardboard box by a homeless camp near The Old Road and Rye Canyon.
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