REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Thieves Target Staged Homes in California

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Daily Real Estate News | April 13, 2009 | Thieves Target Staged Homes in California
Thieves are walking out the door with the high-end borrowed furniture and other decor that decorators install to stage homes on display at open houses.

“It’s brazen,” says D. J. Grubb, the president of the Grubb Company, a real estate firm based in Oakland, Calif. “These are highly aesthetic crimes. The thief seems to be someone with very good taste, somebody who knows that mauve is out.”

Police in Indio, in Southern California, arrested three people accused of breaking into a dozen houses for sale in nearby communities. They recovered more than $250,000 worth of stolen goods, including artwork.

A home stager in Emeryville, Calif., says thieves took about $11,000 worth of furniture and accessories she had brought to spruce up the homes, “Its devastating,” she says.

The Oakland Association of REALTORS® has urged its members to set alarm systems and tell neighbors no one is authorized to take property out of the house.

Source: The New York Times, Heidi Schumann (04/12/2009)

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