Thieves Clean Up By Clearing Out Appliances

Theft a Persistant Problem During Home Construction

One day, the spacious house in Leesburg had a stainless-steel side-by-side refrigerator. The next day, it did not.

The $1,150 appliance vanished from the $900,000 home that was under construction on Dinah Place, leaving behind a trail of scratch marks on the hardwood floor, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said. The front door of the house was knocked off its hinges during the April burglary.

At construction sites, where theft of power tools, copper wire and building materials has been common, some burglars also are making off with bulky appliances such as refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and air conditioners.

In the past few years, millions of dollars worth of appliances has vanished from new and renovated houses and condos in the Washington area, law enforcement authorities say, ending up in the hands of unscrupulous local building contractors, illicit peddlers or, in some instances, in far off places such as Guatemala and El Salvador.

"It's a constant issue with large construction sites," Sgt. Donald Stahl, a detective with the Charles County Sheriff's Office, said of the appliance thefts. "People who steal them dispose of them very quickly."

Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president of research for the National Association of Home Builders, said the theft of appliances and other construction-site materials is an expensive national problem.

"It costs the industry about $5 billion a year, about 1.5 percent of the value of the house," he said. "It is built in the price of a home."

Such thefts are a problem all over the Washington region, from Northern Virginia to the District to Montgomery and Prince George's counties to Southern Maryland.

Authorities say that the number of thefts fluctuates with the ups and downs of the housing market. "It really started increasing when we got that influx of homes being built and renovated," said David Swinson, a detective with the D.C. police's unit for burglary and fencing.

Police departments offer differing statistics, making it difficult to compare jurisdictions. Nonetheless, a sampling of figures provides a glimpse into the problem.

Howard County police, for example, recorded 14 burglaries involving appliances at construction sites in 2004, 30 in 2005, 53 in 2006 and 13 in the first half of this year. Prince George's County reported 57 appliance thefts in about the past two years.

In Northern Virginia, police say four theft rings wreaked havoc in 2005 and 2006, making off with about $5 million in property. Most of it was big appliances from construction sites in the area, as well as in West Virginia, said Mary Ann Jennings, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman.