News from all over - San Francisco
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, Robert Kendrick, who happened to be an heir to the Schlage lock company, one of the biggest makers of locks and security systems in the country.
On Dec. 24, 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. They 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.
On Dec. 27, a member of the ring inexplicably went back to the Kendrick mansion and knocked on the front door. "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 James 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."
When Kendrick did a bit of investigating of his own by visiting the same flea market, 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.
An hour later, Kendrick peered back into the truck, saw an electric blanket that had come from his home -- and called police, he said. The man who police say boasted of being the brains behind the caper, James Reem, 42, was arrested and is in custody on $100,000 bail on grand theft charges.
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, Robert Kendrick, who happened to be an heir to the Schlage lock company, one of the biggest makers of locks and security systems in the country.
On Dec. 24, 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. They 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.
On Dec. 27, a member of the ring inexplicably went back to the Kendrick mansion and knocked on the front door. "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 James 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."
When Kendrick did a bit of investigating of his own by visiting the same flea market, 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.
An hour later, Kendrick peered back into the truck, saw an electric blanket that had come from his home -- and called police, he said. The man who police say boasted of being the brains behind the caper, James Reem, 42, was arrested and is in custody on $100,000 bail on grand theft charges.
