More about open house thefts in the San Fernando Valley

Dang.  Here's more about recent open house thefts, courtesy of a colleague:

On Sunday, July 24 an agent from my office was holding an open house at one of my listings in Encino. At about 3:30 pm two women came in and immediately fell in love with the house. They claimed to be mother and daughter. The agent took them around the house together at first. They really seemed interested in seeing the closet space. The daughter then asked to use the toilet and then the mother and the agent went downstairs (the mother said she wanted to see the downstairs bedroom) the daughter returned to the master bedroom and stole jewelry from a jewelry chest. When the agent was downstairs with the older woman, the woman told her she had recently lost her husband and was now raising four children alone. She said she just recently sold her house in Beverly Hills and wanted to pay cash for the house. The agent realized that the daughter was absent for a while, and after the open house we learned from the seller that there was a theft of jewelry from the jewelry chest in the master bedroom. The owner of the house had strung together the drawers and secured the jewelry chest but the ties had been cut and all the drawers had been emptied. Neither one of the women was carrying a particularly large handbag. The younger woman stated she recently had a baby (appeared pregnant). We think that there must have been a concealed pouch under her “loose” blouse that she put all the jewelry in. The daughter is a petit brunette with long hair. The mother has long blond (bleached) hair , brown eyes, approximately 45-49 years old. They told the agent they were speaking Romanian.



Another agent at our company was holding an open house a couple of blocks away the same day. It seems like the same two women (or women part of this group) came in to the house. They were speaking a foreign language. The house was staged (nobody lives there), so they left quickly (realizing there was nothing to steal) but they managed to steal the agent’s cell phone. They told the agent a similar story….woman recently lost her husband, sold house in Beverly Hills, etc.

When I told this story to some other agents in our office, two agents remembered a very similar situation with two women who came through an open house of ours a few months ago. One was older, one was younger and appeared pregnant. They wanted to split up and one of them asked to see the closets. The two agents were holding the open house and followed them around so nothing was taken. The older woman gave the same story about losing her husband, selling her house in Beverly Hills and paying cash.

It seems as though there is a band of women (gypsies ?) going to open houses to steal. Their MO is to split up. One of them engages the agent sitting at the house pretending to be a real buyer while the other one does the stealing.

If anyone else had a similar theft please ask them to call us so we can let the LAPD detectives know.