A makeshift living space featuring numerous amenities and packed with allegedly stolen items at the former Marine Corps Air Station at the Great Park in Irvine was dismantled after authorities discovered it last week.
Disco lights, a fog machine and sound-proofed walls for an apparent music recording studio decorated the hangar that two men were found to be living inside the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro base on Friday, Aug. 2, according to the Irvine Police Department. The living space also included a couch, television and strobe lights.
The base closed in 1999, and sat vacant for around two years before Orange County residents voted to pass Measure W in 2001, authorizing the former air station’s use as a nature preserve. The measure led to the designation of the land as the Orange County Great Park.
Disco lights, a fog machine and soundproofed walls for an apparent music recording studio decorated the hangar that two men were found to be living inside the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro base on Friday, Aug. 2, according to the Irvine Police Department. The living space also included a couch, television and strobe lights. (Courtesy of the Irvine Police Department)
While many of the structures left over across the 125-acre section of the former air base were slated for demolition in 2022, a handful still remain — including the hangar.
The 29-year-old and 53-year-old Anaheim residents used car batteries to power the equipment inside the hangar, said Irvine Police Sgt. Karie Davies.
Additionally, 11 bicycles, spools of copper wire, an illegal M-800 firework, stolen belongings, two airsoft rifles and drugs were found inside the living space.
Law enforcement previously cited the pair for trespassing the hangar, and regularly send patrol units to check for trespassers inside the vacant structures, Davies said.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of burglary and drug possession, Davies said.
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