How to Help Someone Rob your Home
Posted by Pat Haddad at 11:59 am. Filed under: Pat's Anecdotes
I had the pleasure of showing what I consider to be ‘high end’ homes this week. We looked at several on Geist Reservoir all 1.2 million and up. Got a call from the listing agent for one of the more expensive homes asking if we noticed anything out of place when we were at the home and if we had any difficulty locking any of the doors. The home was a little cluttered—and I had actually already left feedback for this realtor stating the home could benefit from some staging—but nothing out of the ordinary. Turns out the home had been burglarized sometime between when we were there in the afternoon and the next morning. Lots of valuables removed.
After hearing from me that we saw nothing unusual when we were there, the listing agent then confided that the homeowners were on vacation. Before leaving for vacation they dropped a car off at a mechanic’s to be serviced while they were gone. Not only did these home owners tell the mechanic there was no hurry because they would be gone the next two weeks, but they also left their garage door opener to their home IN THE CAR!!! Unbelievable!
To add more to this unbelievable story, the neighbor, who was given the responsibility of watering flowers while the homeowners were away, saw a van back up to the garage the night before. She did not think to call the police until the same van showed up the next morning!
I tend to be very trusting and even naive at times, but I am still shaking my head over this one!!!
August 11th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
It is really unbelievable how trusting people can be with physical security of their assets. On adifferent angle to security, identity thefts have been on the increase at astronomical speed. Every home should have a shredder and use it.
William
August 12th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Wow Pat - this was very eye opening. I appreciate you sharing this - I will definately pass this one along to everyone I know. What’s amazing to me is that a 1.2 million dollar home didn’t have a security system - it’s only $30 a month - either that or they didn’t arm it - Having a monitored alarm could have made all the difference.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I’ve heard of crooks being easy to track down by stupid little details but this one takes the cake. I wonder how much business that mechanic shop has received since this has hit the newspapers.