Search warrant executed at Orange County home

I'm going to bring up Stu Mundell's live picture over SkyFox. This is an illegal gambling operation that is underway in the city of Westminster. A search warrant was served. Quite a bit of activity is going on down below. Down below. Stu, what do we know? Well, we do know exactly kind of what you were just talking about. This is going to be at the 6,000 block of Apache Road. All started around 10 a.m. Westminster PD. Probably a little bit of an investigation. I don't think they just got a tip and showed up. And it is definitely an illegal gambling operation. You can see some of those tables. They just rolled one of them out just moments ago. Westminster PD is out here, and they did take some people into custody. Not sure exactly how many folks. This is a very residential neighborhood. As I do a wider shot and just kind of show you all the homes in the area, and kind of smack darn it in the middle of it, you've got this illegal gambling operation. Where did those tables come from? Well, they came from out of this building in the back there. I was making some kind of jokes about it earlier on, saying, you know, I like my casinos to be a little fancier than that, but I guess if gambling is an addiction, this is probably going to be good enough. A lot of stuff in the backyard as well. One of our desk people commented on that, thinking maybe this might, and I'm being a little serious about this, might be collateral for debts because, you know, the house always wins. Right now, though, Westminster PD is still making their way in and out of that area that was. They're a temporary casino. Right now, though, everything is shut down. We do know people are in custody. That number, though, not revealed to us right now. Maybe Westminster PD needs to do all their paperwork, and then they'll get back to us. You see a SWAT truck there. So this was a warrant that was served. And, again, that indicates that this was some sort of investigation that was going on. It wasn't like somebody called and said, hey, I think something's going on with my neighbor's house. So this was something completely different. Right now, though, they're still taking out a lot of... of the illegal gambling equipment, not sure where that is going to go in the end, but again we know a couple people in custody, and this was all in the Westminster area, illegal gambling ring, another one foiled. We seem to be seeing more and more of these, this is probably the third or fourth one. That we've reported on at least this year. This one, don't know how big it was, again, because we don't see any of the folks. Sometimes they have them cuffed and outside. But again, this all starting around 10 a.m., now closed down in the Westminster area. Marla? So you haven't seen those people who have been taken into custody? No, we have not seen anybody that was taken into custody when they took these people into custody. Again, this all started around 10 a.m. Okay, so we're a couple hours into it. A while. And I'm sure then that we don't know any details about those who were taken into custody. No details at all, but this is the first time I saw gambling equipment, especially of this type of caliber, being brought out of the building to be taken away. That's the first time I've seen something like that. But for the most part, like I said, Westminster PD, they're doing a great job out here, keeping the neighborhoods safe. But again, how many folks were taken into custody? That one is still a big question mark. And can you give us a sense of the neighborhood? I mean, does this look, is this just in the heart of a neighborhood in Westminster? Yeah, it really is. Okay. It's in the heart of a neighborhood in Westminster. And, yeah, it looks to be pretty much middle class, Orange County middle class, and pretty unassuming. There's nothing about that home that would indicate anything going on here other than just somebody living there with a bunch of stuff in their backyard. There's that smaller back house. Again, this seems to be... Like maybe a converted garage or something that they built back there. For a back house at one time, but right now you see law enforcement moving things around. I don't want to show that on television. I didn't realize there was writing on that board. But anyways, that's live television for you. Westminster PD, they are still out here and still taking inventory and taking things into custody, meaning gambling devices that you see out here in that front yard. As far as folks, we know that there were arrests made. We just don't know how many. I was coordinating with our producer here, and I missed what, obviously, it sounds like you can't say what was just seen, the writing on some evidence that was taken in. Yeah, there was some writing on a piece of some sort of boarding that they just pulled out of that area. And again, don't want to go back to double check, but probably something we don't want to put on television. Got it. Okay. All right. Well, now I'm sorry that I was looking away and trying to get some more information. Let's see. The investigation continues. For those just hopping on, this is an illegal gambling investigation in the city of Westminster in Orange County. We do know that people have been taken into custody. How many and exactly the details of these. Reported arrests unknown at this point. We're working to get some more information. Stu Mandel is up there in Skybox with the latest on this. All right. It seems like this is going to be going on for some time, would you say? They're probably going to be here for a while, seeing how that this all started right around, like we've been saying, 10 a.m. So these guys have been here for a while, and they still seem to be going through and cataloging things from the house and that back house. And, again, gambling is illegal, and especially when you get to this type of size where you have gambling tables, multiple ones set up in rooms in the back. This is something that law enforcement is definitely looking into. And again, I would say, I can't say 100%, but this must have been some sort of investigation because they used the term warrant was served, meaning that there was an investigation. They brought this in front of a judge. The judge wrote or signed a warrant, and then they showed up out here to take people into custody and to shut down that illegal operation. So this was probably an ongoing... thing that law enforcement, Westminster PD, was handling out here, an ongoing investigation, probably more professional. But right now, like I said, the gambling shut down. And of course, we understand folks taken into custody as well. All right, Stu Mandel and crew up there in Skybox, thank you so much for your reporting. Breaking news reporting from Orange County. We'll check back with you as soon as we get some more information.