July 24, 2008

Britney Spears-Following Paparazzi Arrested For Loitering Near Singer's Los Angeles Home

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

For the past year, we'd gotten used to the nearly daily photos of Britney Spears tooling around Los Angeles aimlessly in her car. But on Monday, Los Angeles Police might have made it a bit harder for paparazzi to get those shots, arresting two photographers who staked out a spot on a fire-access road on a hillside near Spears' Studio City home on suspicion of loitering.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the two photogs, Alexandre Passos, 35, and Eduardo Ravalha, 35, were arrested after an unidentified person called police around 4pm on Monday to report that the men were loitering on city-owned property that has restricted public access and is blocked by a chain-link fence.

Police told the two to leave the area, but when officers returned nearly an hour later, the photographers were still there. An LAPD spokesperson said the photographers were "detained, questioned and eventually arrested," before being released a few hours later. Ravalha's Mercedes was impounded. Police may have been so quick to respond because they were called to the same spot two weeks ago on a similar report and noticed that signs warning trespassers to stay off the property had been removed.

The arrests Monday were part of an initiative by the LAPD to crack down on aggressive celebrity photographers. In February, four paparazzi were arrested by the LAPD on suspicion of reckless driving after they followed Spears on a street in the San Fernando Valley, and police alleged that at least one had tried to run the singer off the road.