Thieves Clean Up By Clearing Out Appliances
Theft a Persistant Problem During Home Construction

By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 15, 2007; D01

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.

Eventually, more than a dozen people were arrested. More could face charges.

"Some of the facets of the organizations already discovered are still under investigation," Jennings said.

In one of the four cases, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office got a break last year after investigators tracked down two parked vans full of stolen appliances near Route 1 in Fairfax County, said sheriff's department spokesman Kraig Troxell.

Afterward, five men from Central America were charged with operating a ring that police allege stole more than $500,000 worth of appliances from construction sites in Loudoun County, and $800,000 to $1 million worth of appliances and hardwood floors in Fairfax County. Four of the defendants pleaded guilty to felony charges and were ordered deported because of their illegal status; the fifth fled the country.

Michael Hall, a criminal investigator with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, said an informant involved in the thefts revealed that the ring got listings of homes under construction.

Then, during the day, with workers on site, some ring members nonchalantly walked into the homes clad in jeans and T-shirts, looking for installed appliances.

"They would go back and hit those houses at night," he said. "This was their full-time jobs. They'd hit two houses a night, two to three days a week."

He said the ring sold most of the appliances locally to contractors and charged $2,000 to $3,000 for a complete kitchen set, which often included a refrigerator, stove, oven, dishwasher and microwave oven.

In the District, Swinson said, a case of his in 2002 focused on an operation that shipped some of the stolen appliances from construction sites to El Salvador and Guatemala.

"They would have a big truck, and the truck would be loaded up and driven across the border," he said. "Once the stolen property makes it over the border, it's next to impossible to recover, but we have been successful in recovering property if they maintain it in a warehouse or storehouse prior to leaving the country."

Generally, authorities said, prosecutions do not come easily, and in most instances, they have to catch the culprits in the act or with the goods.

Andrew Lopez, an assistant U.S. attorney in the District, said "most of the guys don't hold on" to the appliances for very long. "They usually have a reliable place to get rid of them."

Stahl, the detective in Charles County, which has recorded 35 stolen appliances so far this year, said some builders have stopped locking the doors of vacant houses, concerned that burglars would do more damage if they have to break in to get the appliances.

He said some builders wait until the last minute to install major appliances or remove their doors so they have little value.

The problem has become so common that, on occasion, some builders do not bother reporting the theft, he said.

"They just want to get a replacement and get the homeowner in," he said.