The wildfires sweeping Los Angeles did not affect Brentwood, a wealthy enclave a few miles east of the Palisades that is home to A-list celebrities such as Tom Brady, Travis Scott and LeBron James, but I visited the security checkpoint at the corner of Boulevard Sète. Kenter Street, at the east end of the evacuation zone, was especially busy Tuesday afternoon.
Journalists who would normally be able to pass through were told by the National Guard to proceed to the next checkpoint. Los Angeles Police Department officials often allowed residents to go home to pick up clothes and food, but told them they had to come back another day.
The reason was not officially stated, but that didn't stop people from speculating. That's because a few blocks north of the checkpoint, just inside the evacuation zone, was a four-bedroom home owned by Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband. Doug Emhoff.
On Sunday, police found two people near Harris and Emhoff's property, and both were taken into custody. Los Angeles television station KTLA reported that around 4:40 a.m., a bystander called 9-1-1 to report a possible robbery. Los Angeles Police Department officers found the two in the area and detained them for violating curfew. The men, whose names have not been released, were released after police found no evidence of a crime in progress.
Mr. Harris was not present at the time. Instead, she was in Washington, where she was staying after attending former President Jimmy Carter's funeral last Thursday. Over the weekend, he posted a clip of himself meeting by video call with California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
When news broke about the possible robbery, some people were surprised to learn that Harris lives in Southern California. Harris' political rise has largely been in the Bay Area, as she was the Alameda County prosecutor and the state's top prosecutor. District Attorney of San Francisco.
But in 2013, while Harris was California's attorney general, she was set up on a blind date with Emhoff, a Los Angeles-based attorney whose clients were in the entertainment industry. They married a year later.
Emhoff bought the Brentwood home they shared in 2012 for $2.7 million. After he married Ms. Harris, the Brentwood home was placed in a joint trust. Property records show they now own it together.
Many village residents said Mr. Emhoff was a regular in the area.
Hilda Bayanfal, who lives nearby on Bundy Drive, said she saw Emhoff drinking coffee. Others encountered people climbing the Santa Monica Steps, a wooden and concrete staircase that runs from Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica to Entrada Drive in Los Angeles. Angeles.
Of the more than a dozen people interviewed for this story on Tuesday, none had met Harris in person, even though she had visited Los Angeles many times during her time as vice president. But thanks to her Secret Service detail, they usually know she's in town.
Steve Glickberg grew up in the house his 98-year-old mother still lives in on Homewood Road, one block from Harris' home. When Harris was in town, Secret Service agents were stationed in front of his family's home to make sure no one entered the backyard, he said.
“Sometimes I bring cookies,” he said.
