Did a propery check yesterday in a very nice neighborhood. Walk into the house to read the gas tag to see if my gas was on. Walk to the kitchen island, read the tag, and out of the corner of my eye, I see tons of dust bunnies and junk. I look at the kitchen floor and think to my self, I thought field services cleaned this place. Well they did, but when someone steals all the stainless appliances - they reveal the dust bunnies. Potty word, potty word, potty word. I call the agent that held the propery open on Sunday - yes they were still there on Sunday. Call my asset manager, who tells me she needs a police report and also tells me another one of her agents has just filed a report for the same thing, in the same area. Call the police and while I am waiting for a crusier, call my friend who is a reo agent too. She asked if I had just gotten a email from our board, I say no and she forwards it. In the email it says another reo agent, who I know and is a very low key guy, got a call from the neighbors on one of his listings. Turns out a couple was removing the appliances and carpet (not kidding) from his listing and the neighbors called him cuz they thought that was weird. He shows up, couple is gone but he files a report and gets a description of the couple and the truck. Fast forward to the next night. He is in the same area showing a house. He leaves the house and on his way out of the subdivision, sees the truck and the couple pass him. He turns around and follows them - and get this - they pull into the house he just showed. He watches them open the door from his car - and calls the police - who show up really quick ( nice neighborhood remember) and they ARREST THEM!!! When the police show up at my listing - I tell them the story, they talk to my neighbors and sure enough - same couple. What have I learned? 1) be alert - the agent that saw this couple and followed them - just stopped a huge theft ring here. Turns out my buyer's agent saw this same couple at a HUD listing and he can idenify them - yes they got his appliances too. 2) ALWAYS talk to the neighbors, give them a card and ask them to call you when they see people in the house. This will add time to your property visits - however - it will help everyone involved if they call you when they see strange things. Now the real question is - are my appliances somewhere in this town - in storage - and can I get them back before the June 30th closing???

That's a really great one! What always occurs to me is that there has to be a better way for these people to make a living? At least your crooks we taking large ticket items, assuming they found someone to fence used stainless steel appliances, who sells this junk and who buys it? In my neck of the woods, we get crews with sawz alls and vice grips. The cut out all the copper pipes and rip out as much electrical cable as they can, IE clamp your v grip on the box and pull through the sheet rock to get 50 cents worth of wire. They often try to hump the burner out, but get half way and give up. Again, who buys it and for what $29.50. Our local police have had some success by monitoring the local scrap yards. Still this can't be fun, I'll hire this couple to do some data entry, they'll make more money, stay out of jail and have somewhat better working conditions.

I always try to introduce and delivery my business card to the next door neighbor, for situations like this or in case they can lead me to a potential buyer. I have a break-in recently and the neighbor called me and the police, nothing to steal just someone that needed a place to sleep. But yes it is a good idea to let them know how to reach you.

Wow. To catch a thief!!

For a while a couple of years ago we had water meters stolen along with the copper (all in one city). The head of the water department told me that there was a small amount of some precious metal inside the meters and they extracted that out and sold it.

Update: I spoke to the detective today and he said he lost count of how many properties this involved - at 50. He said there is not a warehouse that they have found (boo) but they do know the two they caught had other people selling the appliances for them. Just crazy.

I want to keep saying "unbelievable" when I hear stories like this, its just getting so common that I don't even know how to react anymore.