Tag: Crime

06/14/12 2:11pm

Allen Stanford’s Next Century

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3 Comments

ALLEN STANFORD’S NEXT CENTURY R. Allen Stanford, the former Houston real estate investor who made it to the big time before being convicted earlier this year of heading up a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, could be spending the next turn-of-the-century in federal prison — if he works it right. The former chairman of the Stanford Financial Group has been imprisoned since June 2009. In a Downtown Houston courtroom today, after Stanford maintained he “didn’t defraud anybody,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced himÂ to 110 years. [L.A. Times; ; previously on Swamplot]

Allen Stanford, Crime

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05/31/12 11:23pm

Comment of the Day: A Likely Story

Crime, Leasing, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing

9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A LIKELY STORY “Exact same thing happens every time I list my garage apartment on the MLS. Someone grabs the info and posts it to craigslist. Iâ€™ve always thought these folks are misguided but legitimate Realtors using it as a way to lure apartment seekers who donâ€™t already have their own agent. They see the ad on CL, call the ‘agent’ and she takes them to the property and collects the buyers-side commission. However, it could be more of the scenario that Katie P describes, which is much more malicious. Earlier this year, I got a knock on my door from a person who wanted to see the apartment, even though the MLS [listing] had been removed a few weeks prior. He was not too pleased to find out the property was long gone. I found the ad on craigslist and called ‘agent Samantha’ to find out more about the property she listed. She was more than just a little flustered and told me that she wasnâ€™t sure what properties her assistant had posted to craigslist. After a few minutes I informed her that the property was no longer available and she needed to remove the ad.” [Kepdogg, commenting on The MLS Rental Scam Going on Now in the Heights]

Comments, Crime, Leasing, Real Estate Marketing, Scams

Comments

05/30/12 11:48pm

Comment of the Day: When Everybody Wants To Rent Out Your House

Crime, Leasing, Quicklink

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN EVERYBODY WANTS TO RENT OUT YOUR HOUSE “Your Realtor should know about this. It is not uncommon. It happens regularly to MLS listings. A friend of mine in Meyerland had the same thing happen. It seems they wait until the MLS rental listing status shows pending or leased, which often means the Realtorâ€™s sign is gone from the yard, but the house might still be vacant for 30 days or so until a legit tenant moves in. Thatâ€™s their window. In my friendâ€™s case the scammer went as far as to look up his name on HCAD and get a g-mail email address that made sense. Same song and dance: he was in London on business; below market rent, etc. The police, FBI, etc. will not do anything. The scammers are usually not local. The scammers sit at their PCâ€™s all day long and do this over and over and over looking for that one gullible renter who will send a deposit to a complete stranger via Western Union. Itâ€™s hard to believe it ever actually works, but I guess if you do it enough times, someone will fall for it. The best thing to do is leave the Realtorâ€™s sign in the yard until someone takes occupancy. That should be a giant waving red flag for anyone who shows up to look at the house. If you want to go a bit further, leave a note on the front door saying something along the lines of, ‘Donâ€™t be a victim of online scams. This house is already leased’ or ‘Donâ€™t be a victim of online scams, the only way to lease this house is to call XYZ at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.'” [Bernard, commenting on The MLS Rental Scam Going on Now in the Heights]

Comments, Crime, Leasing, Scams

05/30/12 10:59am

The MLS Rental Scam Going on Now in the Heights

Houston Heights, Leasing

22 Comments

How do you discover that the house you’re renting out has become the focus of a scam? Well, If the scam’s targets show up on your doorstep, that’s one clue. The owners of the Heights home on Rutland St. pictured above found themselves in that situation last night. So this morning one of them sent Swamplot this tale, hoping readers will have some helpful advice to offer:

We recently bought a bigger house in the Heights and listed our current house for rent on the MLS. All went well (had a lease signed with a great tenant in just three days!) until last night. This friendly couple rang the doorbell and told me that they had been texting with the owner of the house for a week about renting it. She told them she was on a mission trip in Washington DC and couldn’t show them the house right away, but that they should come by the house and look in the windows. If they liked what they saw they were to send her a deposit check. I was flummoxed since I am the owner and had signed a lease two weeks earlier with someone else. I had heard about this happening with rentals listed on Craigslist but didn’t think the scammers would take it to this level. They had posted fraudulent listings on several sites, including Trulia.com and HotPads.com. They listed it for less rent than the real posting and said we’d take dogs and cats.

77008, Crime, Houston Heights, Leasing, Scams

05/23/12 10:07am

The Scene of the Scuffle: Super-Sized Southern Colonial on Buffalo Speedway

by CALwords

Home Decor, Home Design, Homebuying, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions, West University

11 Comments

If this West U mansion on Buffalo Speedway brings to mind a game of Clue, chalk it up to its interior layout — and its inadvertent role in a jewelry pilfering attempt by a house-hunting poseur earlier this year.

As with the classic board game, the listing identifies each room by its function. There’s a Music Room. A Loggia. Even a Billiards Room. It was in a Bedroom back in January, however, that an unassuming early guest at an open house allegedly rummaged through a jewelry drawer. He left quickly and empty-handed, but firstÂ “body-slammed” the sales agent who had interrupted him. An account of the incident that appeared in the Village News at the time (no longer online, unfortunately) said the perp, believed to have been working high-end open houses in 2 cities, was quickly ID’d, due in part to a fast-and-furious word-of-mouth campaign among Houston-area Realtors to name him and flush-out his whereabouts — and to remind fellow agents to be careful when showing properties.

The upshot? Don’t be surprised one of these days if you’re asked to show an ID and pose for a cell phone photo at a slightly less open open house. No ID required for this tour, though:

77005, Crime, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, West University

05/17/12 3:03pm

Not-so-Local Treasures on the Westheimer Strip

Galleria, Lawsuits, Nightlife, Quicklink

26 Comments

NOT-SO-LOCAL TREASURES ON THE WESTHEIMER STRIP Included in the lawsuit filed yesterday by Houston and Harris County attorneys against the owners of Treasures, which labels the Westheimer strip club a public nuisance and attempts to shut it down: allegations that the venue is a site of “human trafficking” — of dancers from Vegas. From Cindy George’s report: “The trafficking allegations stem from police probes revealing that some of the dancers are transported from Nevada to Texas, then from club to club within Houston, and reside in Galleria- area apartments and condos ‘where they are maintained by the pimps,’ [city attorney David] Feldman said at a news conference. . . . ‘They masquerade as legitimate businesses, but these high-end strip clubs like Treasures really are hubs of human trafficking,’ he said, later noting that the establishment averages $20 million in annual alcohol sales. ‘Treasures happens to be the most prominent of these clubs. It’s the largest. It is clearly the most visible and most notable and prominent. . . . We are hopeful that with this action, we serve notice not only on Treasures, but the other clubs out there that Houston-Harris County is not going to put up with this type of criminal activity.'” [Houston Chronicle]

77056, Crime, Galleria, Lawsuits, Nightclubs, Nightlife

05/16/12 10:41am

Highland Village Apple Store Tapes Over Bullet-Ridden Windows with Giant Screen Protectors

Highland Village, Retail

9 Comments

Sure, it’s a temporary fix, but it does make those shot-out glass panels on the brand-new Apple Store in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping Center look all clean and sleek again — if not a little gun-shy. The shattered panel above the Westheimer Rd. entrance has been smoothed over with a covering of adhesive black film. For symmetry’s sake, the film has been applied to the adjacent panel as well, to frame out a new large Apple logo decal in the center. The new decal stands in for the now obscured glowing Apple logo fixture that hangs in the same location just behind the window:

77027, Crime, Highland Village, Highland Village Apple Store, Repairs, Retail, Storefronts

05/03/12 11:00am

Behind the Shattered Glass at the Highland Village Apple Store

Hazards, Highland Village, Retail

9 Comments

How well does a store built of structural glass hold up under gunfire? Probably better than your typical plate-glass storefront — though the repair costs are likely to be higher. A reader sends Swamplot this photo showing the smaller of 2 glass panels damaged by bullets earlier this week at the brand-new Apple Store in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping Center. Between the hours of 4:40 and 5:40 Monday morning someone in a vehicle speeding down Westheimer shot at 5 businesses, including 2 gas stations and the Cantoni furniture showroom past Gessner. No one was injured. Apple Store customers were routed to the building’s rear entrance after it opened for business, according to Click2Houston reporter Courtney Zavala.

Views of the damage from the outside, from Monday’s TV report:

Crime, Hazards, Highland Village Apple Store, Highland Village Shopping Center, Retail

04/13/12 2:06pm

How Late Nite Pie Got Burned

Fires, Midtown, Restaurants

5 Comments

Surveillance video from a car lot across the street showed 2 men removing a long object — later identified as a bench — from Late Nite Pie not long before the Midtown pizza joint at 302 Tuam St. went up in flames in the early morning hours of February 8th. 10 minutes later in the video footage, after the bench removers had driven off and as smoke rose from the west side and southwest corner of the building, a man is seen exiting through the front door, hesitating, then driving off in a Chevy Astro van. Police have now charged that man, identified as Raymond Pecher, the restaurant’s former day shift manager, with arson.

Photo: Candace Garcia

77006, Arson, Crime, Fires, Midtown, Restaurants

03/12/12 12:57pm

Stolen from a Closely Guarded Garden

Critters, Quicklink, Restaurants, Security, Upper Kirby

13 Comments

STOLEN FROM A CLOSELY GUARDED GARDEN Yes, those bees were under camera surveillance; don’t even think they aren’t watching the radishes too. A beehive on the small garden campus adjacent to Haven Restaurant on Algerian Way near the corner of Kirby and the 59 feeder was stolen in the early morning hours Saturday, by someone driving a dark truck with a camper — reports chef Randy Evans after reviewing security footage. Film at 11 5, promises KTRK reporter Miya Shay. [Twitter] Photo: Miya Shay

77098, Crime, Critters, Restaurants, Security, Upper Kirby

03/06/12 12:39pm

Jury: Stanford Guilty on 13 of 14 Counts

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4 Comments

JURY: STANFORD GUILTY ON 13 OF 14 COUNTS Houston real estate and Ponzi scheme impresario R. Allen Stanford has been found guilty of 13 counts of fraud, obstruction of a federal investigation, and conspiracy to launder money. The charge he bought Super Bowl tickets for an Antigua securities regulator didn’t stick, though. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

Apartments

02/17/12 1:11pm

What the Promenade Cullen Park Was Warning Its Residents About

Crime, Cullen Park, Lawsuits, Leasing

8 Comments

According to an attorney for a woman who was raped and sodomized for more than 12 hours in her second-floor apartment in the Promenade Cullen Park 3 years ago, managers of the apartment complex just west of the Addicks Reservoir had in fact sent out a notice to residents after a through-the-balcony break-in of the unit next door to her 2 weeks earlier. However, it was “the same warning that they would send out if a bicycle was stolen off a balcony or a TV was stolen out of an apartment,” attorney Troy Chandler tells the Houston Chronicle. “The notice failed to mention that a burglary occurred, that the assailant waited inside, that a tenant was attacked and that there had been an attempted rape.” After that incident but before she was raped, the woman renewed her lease on the apartment — without being informed about the nature of the attack, according to her attorneys.

77084, Apartments, Crime, Cullen Park, Lawsuits, Leasing

02/10/12 4:45pm

Suspected Catburglar Arrested In North Montrose Doggie Door Escapade

North Montrose, Security

5 Comments

The man seen above crawling back onto the back porch of a North Montrose bungalow with a pillowcase full of electronics and jewelry in hand is 29-year-old Steven Groucho Hicks, the Houston Police Dept. now believes. According to a KHOU report, Hicks was arrested yesterday and charged with burglarizing the home by crawling through its doggie door. An extensive gallery of photos documenting the burglary was posted to Flickr last month, retrieved from a surveillance camera the homeowner had installed after learning of similar episodes in the neighborhood.

77019, Burglaries, Crime, North Montrose, Photos, Security

01/27/12 12:17pm

North Montrose Catburglar Goes In and Out Through the Doggie Door

North Montrose, Security

18 Comments

Note: Two updates below.

A North Montrose family found itself enriched Wednesday by a treasure trove of photos showing the burglar who had been stalking their back porch — and impoverished by the iPad, camera, and jewelry the man nabbed from his home, stuffed into a pillowcase. The surveillance pics gathered from the incident near West Gray and Montrose Blvd. are now on display in this Flickr account. They show remarkably clear images of the neighborhood’s new doggie-door burglar — nicknamed “the Ghost” because no one had caught a glimpse of him during similar incident last week — pacing back and forth in the back yard, talking on a mobile phone to an accomplice who was apparently acting as a lookout. The culprit “spent 10 minutes casing the back yard and 4 minutes inside the house,” the victim tells Swamplot.