The Heist

[slacker]

Irregular News for 01.24.07

 

San Francisco, CA -- It looked like the perfect crime. Starting on Christmas Eve, a ring of thieves -- mistaken by neighbors as a moving crew -- removed $2.5 million in art, antiques and rugs from a Jackson Street mansion in San Francisco's Presidio Heights, taking two truckloads of loot without being detected.

 

It took months of planning to execute but afterward just days to become a perfect mess -- when one of the burglars decided to try to sell back some of the loot to the victim, who happened to be an heir to the Schlage lock company, one of the biggest makers of locks and security systems in the country.

 

The man who police say boasted of being the brains behind the caper, James Reem, 42, was arrested Jan. 12 and is in custody on $100,000 bail on grand theft charges.

 

"This was a not a simple burglary of opportunity -- this is basically a heist,'' said San Francisco burglary inspector Denise Fabbri, who described Reem as a longtime criminal and drug addict who recently relapsed after being sober for five years. "He almost bragged that he organized it, but he basically lost control.''

 

Reem told investigators he got the idea for a big hit at the Jackson Street mansion after committing a smaller burglary there in September in which he got away with small furniture, candlesticks, jewelry, figurines and other valuables worth about $100,000.

 

He soon learned that his once and future victim was Robert Kendrick, grandson of the co-founder of Schlage lock, said Fabbri, and then went about assembling a burglary team, one by one, each member known to Reem but not the others.

 

Then, on Dec. 24, according to Fabbri, the burglars pulled up in a U-Haul truck, easily gained entry and kept busy for two days at the home while Kendrick was out of town.

 

Reem and his cohorts allegedly hauled their take to a local storage warehouse, where Reem intended to turn over the goods to a fence, a man he trusted would sell the identifiable but valuable paintings and antiques on the black market and then distribute the cash to members of the group.

 

But two days later the plot took a bizarre twist.

 

On Dec. 27, a member of the ring -- a man police don't want to name pending further investigation -- inexplicably went back to the Kendrick mansion and knocked on the front door, Fabbri said.

 

"He said he had been to the flea market, and he saw property there that doesn't belong in a flea market,'' Kendrick said, recalling his astonishment. "He said he traced it from what he saw to where I lived.''

 

Kendrick said the man offered to go back to the flea market, on Alemany Boulevard, and retrieve the stolen property. Indeed, he came back an hour later with some coins and a Kendrick family book of etchings, said Kendrick.

 

But when he returned, a second individual, who turned out to be Reem, was with him and started lecturing Kendrick about how poorly he had secured his home, said Kendrick.

 

"He said: 'You don't take proper care of your property,' '' Kendrick said. "They gave me my (ex-) wife's etchings and a bottle of wine, Pinot Grigio.''

 

Kendrick said he called police and told them he planned to do a bit of investigating of his own by visiting the same flea market that Sunday.

 

When he did, Kendrick said, he ran into Reem and saw a U-Haul truck -- the same kind his neighbors had said they had seen during the Christmas burglary -- parked in one of the flea market sales stalls.

 

"One of them said 'Hello Robert' when I walked by -- it was Reem,'' Kendrick said.

 

Kendrick said he saw a tire and speakers in the back of the U-Haul that he thought could be his. But the two still chatted amiably, he said.

 

An hour later, after walking around the market, Kendrick peered back into the truck, saw an electric blanket that had come from his home -- and called police, he said.

 

Fabbri said police detained two men and a woman who were released pending further investigation. Reem managed to get away in the U-Haul, leaving suspected members of the ring behind, police said.

 

"He was gone, and the truck was gone'' by the time the police got there, Kendrick said.

 

But within a matter of several days, the ring members who were detained were placed under surveillance and led police to Reem's fence, whom authorities haven't named.

 

Before Reem was arrested, police said, the man he had been counting on to sell off the paintings and antiques from the storage locker had moved the property to a new location in an apparent double-cross.

 

"This guy basically backstabbed him," Fabbri said.

 

In addition to arresting Reem, police have so far recovered more than 80 items, including a painting of a gray-haired woman by John Singer Sargent valued at $1 million.

 

Kendrick said he is happy to have most of his valuables back and thanked authorities for their efforts.

 

"The police were persistent -- they were putting in long hours in this. I don't know how often someone offers your property back in such an unconvincing way, but that was all they needed.''

 

Not everything is back where it belongs, however.

 

Kendrick said he can't find Bucky, one of his two cats, who were home during the Christmas heist. The 5-year-old Abyssinian cat has a notch on its right ear, he said.

 

"They were feeding him in my fancy dishes,'' he said. "What happened to him? Is there a chance he is alive and if so, where? I just hope whoever has my kitty reads this.''

 

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[AR Husker Fan]

Too dumb to live. You just know these morons figured they could essentially ransom the goods for a higher price than the fence was willing to pay. They figured wrong...

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

They were feeding him in my fancy dishes,'' he said. "What happened to him? Is there a chance he is alive and if so, where? I just hope my kitty reads this.''

 

There fixed it