Friday, April 10, 2009

Grand Theft Probe Triggered By Report Of $1M In Missing Fixtures, Appliances Stripped From Foreclosed Mansion

In Encinitas, California, the San Diego Union Tribune reports:
  • After a high-profile foreclosure, the county's largest and possibly most luxurious bank-owned home is missing an estimated $1 million worth of fixtures, from antique doors to top-of-the-line toilets. So far, no suspects have been named in a grand theft probe the Sheriff's Department launched in March.

  • It's like a car up on blocks,” sheriff's Detective Steven Ashkar said. “It's been stripped.” The 16,000-square-foot Spanish hacienda-style house on 1.24 acres in rural east Encinitas cost $13 million to build and furnish. In February, it failed to sell at a bank foreclosure auction with a starting bid of $2.3 million. [...] On March 26, the bank's real estate agent [...] filed a police report citing missing “doors, windows, fixtures, toilets, cabinets and appliances,” Ashkar said.

For more, see $1 million worth of fixtures vanish from foreclosed home.

See also, ABC Good Morning America: Million-Dollar Foreclosure Theft (Recession Victim: A Vacant California Mansion Stripped of $1 Million in Fixtures).

For the Good Morning America video, see Foreclosed Homes Attract Thieves.

Go here for other posts on pre-foreclosure homeowner fixture stripping. foreclosure fixture stripping apple