"People Who Do It Are Going To Jail" Says DA As Couple Accused Of Stripping Fixtures From Their Foreclosed Home Face Grand Theft, Extortion Charges

In San Jaoquin County, California, the Stockton Record reports:

• A married couple stand accused of stripping up to $100,000 in light fixtures, appliances, interior doors and more from their foreclosed Ripon home and then trying to sell the valuables back to the new owners. John and Janette Freitas face a three-count criminal complaint filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court charging them with grand theft, extortion and attempted extortion - all felonies.

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• San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said this is one in a stack of similar cases his office is filing against people who are up to such outlandish things as digging up trees and taking down fences while vacating their foreclosed homes.

• "This is the kind of thing we're seeing, big and small, around the county," Taylor said. "People who do it are going to jail." Taylor said it is illegal to take items from a home under mortgage. He named off a long list of items the Freitases allegedly took, including the burglar alarm, wine cooler, built-in refrigerator, exterior lighting fixtures, shower doors and doorbell.

• The couple went a step further - drawing extortion charges - when they tried to sell the removed valuables, some custom made, to the home's new owners for $50,000, the criminal complaint says. According to the arrest warrant, the Freitases lost their $1 million home [...] in Ripon last year to foreclosure.

For more, see Ripon couple accused of stripping foreclosed home (It's happening throughout S.J., D.A.'s office says).