Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 8:02 AM
More from the REO Trail
It’s early Saturday morning – what is JtR up to today?
Sleeping in? Come on.
Sharing a birthday treat with his daughter while discussing Cathedral’s 30-13 drubbing of Carlsbad HS last night? Nope.
You see, I have REO listings.
We’ve been having some visitors who have broken in over at one of the listings, but no one has been successful in catching them. Until now. The police make their move on big busts early in the morning, so I figured if there are intruders staying at the house, they’ll be sleeping at 6am, right?
Sure enough, caught these two snoring away this morning. I used a couple of cable ties to detain them, like they do in ‘Cops’, and called Oceanside’s finest, who arrived within five minutes.
You might think they were here illegally, fresh in town and needing a temporary place to call home while they get acclimated.
But they weren’t. These are two school-age kids who spoke fluent English – and whose parents live in the area. One said he was in community college, the other in high school.
The police asked me if I wanted to press charges of tresspassing against them, or just scare the beegeebers out of them. I told them to take ‘em home, but make sure the parents knew what they were doing.
Posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 8:02 AM in Foreclosures/REOs | 28 Comments » | 
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Jim,
YOU CUFFED THEM??? Please be careful. But I’m sure your wife has told you that a few time, already.
Ty
Tyrone | September 27th, 2008 at 8:16 amOne of the greatest blog entries of all time. The photo is priceless.
NoCoCivil | September 27th, 2008 at 8:23 amAs they say on “Cops”, “All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law…”
SantaFeHills | September 27th, 2008 at 9:45 amOh my god…
You are amazing!
shadash | September 27th, 2008 at 9:57 amDoes this count towards your DRE continuing education requirements?
Good stuff.
Kevin | September 27th, 2008 at 11:21 amGeez~! When did a realtor become RoboCop!? Dude, that’s 2 guys against you alone… Bravo mister man! Just please don’t do it again.. I like reading your posts, if your injured you might not be able to blog! God forbid!
Donna | September 27th, 2008 at 11:26 amI sniff a scam. How could you take down two at once, AND zip tie them? And where’d you get the ties? I don’t know many Realtors who are packin’ zips all the time.
Either way — cool story, Hansel!
Aztec | September 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pmI didn’t cuff them, just hog-tied them, modern-style with the plastic straps. Yep, my wife didn’t like it at all but these guys are tresspassing and impending the sale of the property. Making a citizen’s arrest is perfectly legal, and the three officers that showed up had no problem with it.
Having a way to detain them is a tip I learned from the last time this happened. I had a house for sale down on Nevada Street that was owned by an old concert producer from the 1960s who still liked to do drugs. But his heart couldn’t take it, and he died one day, much to the chagrin to the local homeless who hung out with him to smoke his weed and do crack.
Once his attorney hired me to sell it, I had the same problem as the house today – people kept coming in the house. I showed up early one morning and caught two crackheads inside, upstairs. I had the same aluminum silver slugger with me that I had today, but they were in two different rooms.
When I heard one heading for the window I ran in there, and he jumped out from the second story. I went back to the other guy and he went off the balcony from the second story too. I chased the first one down the street and caught him, but didn’t have cuffs or cable ties. I hovered over him with my bat, but when he jumped up and took off I let him go.
They didn’t come back though.
A scam? I hate blogging just for comments like that. It doesn’t matter how honest and sincere I am, people are always happy to give me crap, no matter what the story.
Jim the Realtor | September 27th, 2008 at 12:27 pmBack to Aztec – going in at 6am to catch them sleeping is how you can hog-tie two of them before they wake up. You have about 30 seconds. I picked up the zips on the way over at Home Depot – they open at 6am.
Jim the Realtor | September 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pmEeeeee. Be careful.
Dwip | September 27th, 2008 at 12:49 pmThe kid in front is already sprouting unsightly man-boobs. Put a shirt on ‘em next time, before snapping the photo.
(Otherwise, this is my all-time favorite bubbleinfo blog post!)
Smithers | September 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pmI still think I’ve got you beat with the Countrywide Avocado flop house:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_zqzPMzXNGso/RstMnTNGfHI/AAAAAAAAAzU/R2v9JggPmZI/s1600-h/410pets.JPG
Be safe my friend and how did you get the drop on them in the Chevy? Park in Oceanside? You didn’t drive up in the silver ghost?
Rob Dawg | September 27th, 2008 at 2:47 pmAztec, I’ll tell you how Jim took down two at one time…They’re only tough when they’re in public, they have enough friends with them, and they know you won’t do anything to them. When it comes down to it, these thugs are a bunch of spineless wimps. They always get tough when the handcuffs are put on or they’re behind a cell door.
opd cop | September 27th, 2008 at 3:14 pmThanks for checking in opd cop. The three officers sent out on this call handled it in the most professional manner, as usual.
I have a ton of respect for the Oceanside PD – EVERY experience I’ve had with you guys has been very impressive. You deserve a raise!
Jim the Realtor | September 27th, 2008 at 3:27 pmDawg – the silver ghost indeed, but as I was driving up I noticed that it was rather conspicuous. Good thing they were sleeping.
BTW, I’m just a tough guy in my head – if there would have been more bad guys than I could handle, I would have high-tailed it out of there.
Jim the Realtor | September 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pmTruly a fantastic post…but hey…you’ve still gotta sell me a house…so stay safe!
Byomkesh | September 27th, 2008 at 4:15 pmthis is truly a realtor that goes the extra mile.
but seriously, stay safe and be careful, these guys are likely diseased.
ocrenter | September 27th, 2008 at 4:35 pmI’ve said it before, they really need to pay you more. It’s people like you who are fixing the economy one house at a time.
BDiego | September 27th, 2008 at 5:53 pmJim, I certainly wouldn’t criticize for taking the law into your own hands and dealing with this problem. I have little or no sympathy for the squatters/vandals.
That said, wouldn’t it have been smarter to call the cops and let them catch them inside?
I can see this sign going up in the local police station:
“We won’t sell homes if JTR promises to stop apprehending criminals.”
Just sayin.
ice weasel | September 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pmJim you are the Bruce Lee of Realtors, keep up the good work.
Rick | September 27th, 2008 at 9:12 pmWow! Great job Jim. Why didn’t you press charges though? I’m not sure the parents will do anything about it.
Lisa in OC | September 28th, 2008 at 8:35 amToo bad one of those punks you have tied up isn’t Khalil Greene for stealing from the Padres this year…
Anonymous | September 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pmOops – that was me with the Khalil post.
Woodrow | September 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pmWow! That’s one tough Realtor.
CVman | September 29th, 2008 at 9:30 amStory of the week, Jim! Go get ‘em, but stay safe!
Dave | October 1st, 2008 at 12:19 amOne can easily see that Jim is both serious and honest. It’s easy to see simply by reading through this site. It must’ve taken a great deal for you to do that, especially considering the last time that you had to do this back on Nevada street-but you did it. That’s the important thing.
Bella | October 16th, 2008 at 8:32 pmA citizen’s arrest for trespassing ansd squatting? That sounds like excessive force to me. Is that legal where you live? Otherwise the parents might have sued your pants off, if they were not too embarrassed about the behavior of their youngsters.
Peter t | April 1st, 2009 at 10:53 pmOh Peter ^ — Take a clue from Jim and grow a set.
holland | April 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 pm