Model homes are attracting more than potential buyers; Clever crooks may tour the homes by day, then return to steal expensive TVs

By ANTHONY CORMIER anthony.cormier@heraldtribune.com

A group of thieves is targeting model homes that have been stocked with top-of-the-line furnishings.

So far, the thieves have hit a dozen models in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

And these burglars do their homework.

They know how to get around motion detectors. They are in and out in a few minutes, and they are taking only one item: high-end TVs.

"These are very, very smart crews," said Lee Wetherington, a builder who has lost eight TVs in the past few months.

"My guess is that they know what they are doing, they know how to beat the security system and, once they get what they came for, they move on to the next area. I've never seen anything like it before."

The break-ins, about a dozen in Manatee and Sarasota counties during the last month, are the latest blow to builders already vexed by sluggish home sales.

The thefts also point to a change in how new developments are being marketed.

It used to be that model homes were stocked with model stuff: plastic fruit on the table, a faux computer in the den, a cardboard TV in the living room.

But as the market slowed, builders say they have done everything they can to entice buyers, sometimes spending thousands of dollars to soup up the models with the latest electronic equipment.

Thousands of vacant homes across Southwest Florida have lured other crooks, who lifted appliances during construction or stole air-conditioning units to strip the copper wire out of them and sell it.

"This past year, I filed double the police reports than I did last year," said Neil McDaniel, a project manager for Vision Homes, which was hit hard by appliance and copper thefts in 2007.

But jumping a chain-link fence and walking into an unfinished house is a lot easier than evading a top-of-the-line security system and getting away without being detected.

Some builders think the thieves are posing as prospective buyers during the day to figure out the security system's weaknesses. Then, at night, the criminals probably return in a pack, because the TVs are heavy and because somebody needs to act as a lookout.

They strike the same areas hard over the course of a few days, then they move on.

"They know what they're doing, that's for sure," said Sgt. John Andrews, an investigator from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.