East Texas house stolen brick by brick

[Dover]

March 23, 2005, 6:25AM

East Texas house stolen brick by brick
Associated Press

LINDALE — When Smith County Constable Dennis Taylor got a call reporting a stolen house, his first question was, "Is it a trailer house, ma'am?"

"No, it's a brick house," the real estate company representative replied.

Board by board, shingle by shingle, for nearly three months, thieves dismantled a three-bedroom brick house in this East Texas town and carted it away until only a pile of rubble was left.

Authorities allege Brandon Ray Parmer, 29, and Darrell Patrick Maxfield, 44, both of Tyler, took the house apart and sold it for drugs, in plain view of everyone cruising by on U.S. Highway 69, Lindale's main street. Both men were arrested this week.

Taylor said the men worked slowly and haphazardly in daylight, with no one questioning their work, because everyone assumed it was the work of Wal-Mart or Lowe's, the two large retail stores laying new foundations nearby..cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3099058

[mike_c]

1. my god what ingenuity....

That takes balls. Damn.

[Silverhair]

2. The best way to steal something is to do it in front of everybody,

in plain sight, acting like you know what you are doing.

[Elidor]

6. James Garner once won a dare to steal a coke machine

He showed up in a uniform with a dolly and carted it out the front door in front of god and everybody. He won the bet.

[BikeWriter]

9. I had friends in that bidness. They'd show up with vans complete...

with signs on the sides, bills of lading and all.

[atommom]

3. Fascinating. Bricks must be worth more than I thought ...

[Blue_Tires]

4. how much of that stuff was actually useable?

and how old was the house? how long was it abandoned?

and working in broad daylight, not one police officer driving by noticed anything strange?

[RPM]

5. texas, eh?

figures.

[last_texas_dem]

7. "One piece at a time"'s the only way to go

Hey, Johnny Cash got a whole car that way!

Well, unless that song was a fictional story, but I hardly think so. :-)

[Horse with no Name]

8. Lindale is kind of strange

You cross Interstate 20 and then go about 5 miles where there is basically nothing and then you are in the middle of town. My guess is that is where it is at, besides, thats a huge speed trap so the cops were probably busy trying to catch people when the speed limit drops from 65 to 40,lol. Too busy to pay attention to someone stealing a house.
Thats really a good idea though.
I saw a house that I realllly liked.....oh wait, never mind
:evilgrin:

[tammywammy]

10. First stealing is wrong

But this is awesome. I could never be a criminal, because I would never think to do this....during the day, in plain sight. Genius!

[Dover]

11. Sounds positively Rovian.........

Isn't that how the neocons have been operating...in plain sight?