Our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar tweeted about this incident, oh, three days ago. Took a little time for legacy media to catch up.

Stolen ballots in @tedlieu's district. pic.twitter.com/susaSkoaYz

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 21, 2021

KTLA 5 is now on the case:

Torrance police are investigating the discovery of hundreds of recall election ballots in a vehicle where a felon was found passed out with drugs, a loaded firearm and multiple driver’s licenses one week ago, authorities said Monday.

Approximately 300 ballots were recovered from the vehicle, which was parked in the lot of a 7-Eleven convenience store on the night of Aug. 16, according to the Torrance Police Department.

Officers also discovered a loaded firearm, methamphetamine, thousands of pieces of mail, a scale, and multiple California drivers licenses and credit cards that were in other people’s names, a police news release stated. Xanax pills were also located on the unidentified male subject, who authorities described as a felon.

He was arrested on suspicion of a number of offenses, including weapons violations, narcotics and forgery violations.

Local CBS2 News says it is over 300 ballots that were discovered. The Torrance Police Department updated their Facebook page saying that the investigation is ongoing, in partnership with Torrance’s Special Investigations Division, the U.S. Postal Service, and the L.A. County District Attorney Public Integrity Unit.

With L.A. District Attorney George Gascón at the helm, and also under threat of Recall, I’m not expecting much.

According to the Facebook post, investigators are seeking to ascertain how the felon obtained the Recall ballots and what his intent was in having them. Apparently the arrest occurred on August 18, the same day that the election officials began mailing out ballots.

Really? <Insert *eyeroll* emoji>

In KTLA’s conversation with police officials they expressed the same befuddlement:

“Investigators are trying to figure out how the election ballots ended up in the suspect’s vehicle and what their intent was in having them,” police officials said in a statement. “This is an isolated incident and is not related to any additional thefts of election ballots.”

I guess when you make the immediate conclusion that this is an “isolated incident” then it exempts you from looking at other connective threads. This final statement on the Torrance P.D. Facebook post is also telling:

This incident is not tied to any additional thefts of election ballots.

Which reflects that they know of additional thefts of Recall ballots occurring. So, how widespread is it? Have there been more in Los Angeles County? What other Counties have reported this type of theft occurring? While on the one hand, the agencies investigating have to keep certain things under wraps, on the other hand, alerting the public to where it is occurring within the State will put people on high alert, as well as activate the election integrity organizations like Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) and Ric Grenell’s Fix California to take their own investigatory measures.

As I reported last week, two women were caught on camera in Valley Village using a master key to open all the mailboxes in an apartment complex and remove Recall ballots. This also occurred on August 18.

2 women caught on camera stealing CA Gov. Recall Election ballots out of apartment mailboxes using a USPS master key to open the entire mail box at once. This was in Valley Village earlier this week. Another man was caught with hundreds of ballots in Torrance as well. pic.twitter.com/n8s3McIH1T

— Old Man Wizard (@OldManWizard3) August 19, 2021

Maybe this investigation will connect the ballots stolen by these women with the ballots that were in the possession of the felon in Torrance. Torrance and Valley Village are both in Los Angeles County, and about 32 miles apart.

KFSN Fresno News also reported on August 19 that two men were arrested for mail theft. The addressed mail ranged from as far North as Clovis (near Fresno) to as far South as San Diego.