A Year into Daniel Lurie's Term, The Tenderloin is still the Tenderloin

00:00:00
Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show. We're broadcasting live from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Back in California on Monday. Mister Randy Wang's downstairs.

00:00:14
Speaker 2: John, We've got the latest scam involving legos. Criminals are buying expensive legos from Target, dumping out all the pieces, replacing it with pasta so it sounds like legos when you shake it up, and then returning them.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: We'll have more on that in the California Crime Blodder later on in the program. But first, San Francisco Mayor Lourie promised voters when he was a candidate for office that he would clean up the streets and get rid of the homeless encampments. Well, there's no bigger neighborhood in San Francisco dealing with the problem of homelessness more than the Tenderloin. And Randy, we have an update on how Mayor Lurie is doing the homeless encampment in the Tenderloin.

00:01:03
Speaker 2: Lurie has done a great job cleaning up places like Union Square and downtown, but the Tenderloin still looks like the Tenderloin. Leanne Melendez from ABC seven in the Bay went to the Tenderloin, and I believe this story has a special cameo appearance from JJ Smith. Here is ABC seven.

00:01:24
Speaker 3: A year ago, I interviewed Mayor Daniel Lurie, who then told me the drug and homeless crisis in San Francisco was going to take some time. Now, people living and working in the Tenderloin understood that, except that by now they had hoped to see some signs of stability.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: What we've decided to do is push the problem into one or two bad neighborhoods, so the rest of the city is very clean and safe.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine. I am all for that. But then once you have them in one area, you know what you have to do. You have to send the cops in and you have to say, okay, here's what we want. Anyone with an outstanding warrant out for their arrest, arrest them. What percent do you think have outstanding warrants in those encampments. I would say a pretty high percentage. Anyone who's in the country illegally, we're going to turn them over to Ice and have them deported. And anyone who's doing something illegal we're going to blow the whistle and arrest them on that and take them downtown. Once you have them in one place and you go in and you do those three things, you should be able to clean it out pretty fast. But this is the problem in big cities. Even with mayors who have their head screwed on straight, like Lori in San Francisco or Mayhon in San Jose, they're still unwilling to do things like work with Ice. Well, if you want to clean out these encampments, we have to do all of the above. And if you take some of the tools out of the toolbox, you're going to deal with encampments that are sticking around far longer than your constituents want them to be there.

00:03:11
Speaker 2: It is a very well known thing that the majority of the drug dealers in the Tenderloin are in the country illegally from Honduras. And Matt Dorsey, the supervisor from San Francisco, put forth a bill that would just make an exception in San Francisco's sanctuary laws that if they catch an illegal alien Honduran drug dealer, they can turn him over to Ice. And he got shot down and called a racist for it.

00:03:38
Speaker 1: No, this is why as saying as Matt Mahan is on so many issues, people ask me, why don't you vote for him for governor because he has a better shot of getting it than the two Republicans do, And my answer is always because he's still a Democrat in California and he can't do common sense things that need to be done to fix these problems. He's tying his own hands. And if he's going to tie his hands and not do what needs to be done to fix the problem, that I'm not gonna vote for him. And that's just the way it is now.

00:04:12
Speaker 2: There can be will from the mayor's office to make arrests, and we have seen some big mass arrests where they even did find people without standing warrants. You also have to have to will for the prosecutor's office. And ever since Chase A. Boudin got recalled and Brooke Jenkins got put in there, she has been doing a hell of a job. But Johnny, there is a third leg to that stool and it jams everything up. And that is even when Brooke Jenkins tries to bring charges against people selling drugs or doing drugs in the tenderloin, the judges say Nah, we're not gonna.

00:04:46
Speaker 1: Do that, Thanks Gavin and Jerry Brown.

00:04:50
Speaker 3: There is a sharp contrast between most of San Francisco's neighborhoods and the Tenderloin. People here had hope that under the administration Mayor Daniel Lurie, drugs and homelessness here would be immediately addressed. Here's what we saw.

00:05:07
Speaker 1: It is funny, right.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: You know, everyone who campaigns on doing something about homeless whether it's in San Francisco or in LA they don't ever want to do it where it's most visible, where you would see the most obvious improvement. If the if skid row got cleaned up, it would be reported internationally.

00:05:25
Speaker 1: They're almost apologetic when they do it too. It's like, don't apologize for doing this, they're breaking the law. Go in there and kick ass.

00:05:36
Speaker 3: Here's what we saw. We're going to just sit down and see what happens and talk to people. It's ten thirty in the morning and every corner shows the harsh reality of a drug and alcohol addicted society. We asked Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic to stop by.

00:05:56
Speaker 4: Well, the whole intersection, it's the worst intersection in San Francisco most drug filled intersection. But anyone who comes here knows.

00:06:03
Speaker 5: Thet knows the truth, and that is.

00:06:07
Speaker 4: The city allows activities to go on in the tender win they would never allow in other neighborhoods.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: Shaw recall, and they allow them indoors as well as outdoors. And all the homeless that have housing in those SROs and the Tenderloin, they're o ding in there because they're allowed to bring drugs.

00:06:22
Speaker 1: And you know, Randy, that's compassion.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: Shaw recalled the many times Mayor Luri has vowed to crack down on public drug use.

00:06:30
Speaker 6: Since January, we are tackling this in new and innovative ways.

00:06:36
Speaker 4: What I don't like is when he says we're really committed to clearing our streets and drug activities, and we don't see any progress.

00:06:41
Speaker 3: Irwin Garcia, a San Francisco resident, sees it differently.

00:06:45
Speaker 7: The last administration did start sweeping the street, cleaning the streets, providing programs.

00:06:50
Speaker 1: He's building on that.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, London Breed, the first couple of years was crazy. But then London Breed realized there was no way she was going to get re elected with that attitude and started turning the other way and less.

00:07:02
Speaker 8: Tolerant of all the bulk that has destroyed our city.

00:07:06
Speaker 1: But it was a little too little, too late. If you are not here. Fomo, she liked a party, and he's built on it nice.

00:07:14
Speaker 7: He's took in the momentum that was already there, and that's continue the momentum.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: For example, Leuri is counting on a new Reset Center to be opened in the Soma District in May that will act as a sobering center while connecting people to treatment. People arrested for public intoxication or drug use will be taken there instead of jail or the emergency room.

00:07:36
Speaker 2: And if you're wondering why they don't want to take them to jail, it's because the judges won't let them hold them in jail. No, the judges are a huge part of this problem in San Francisco City and County.

00:07:49
Speaker 3: It follows Lurie's more centrist approach to this crisis.

00:07:53
Speaker 7: People want to use, obviously because they're addicted and they're sick. But if you can give them the hope and you can show them that there's a better way, and then you can provide a system of care for it, it works.

00:08:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, But the way it works is you've got to get all the drugs away from them. And what we do is we put these people in environments where they're surrounded by it.

00:08:13
Speaker 1: And we pay public health professionals handsome salaries to give them the tools that they use to kill themselves with.

00:08:21
Speaker 2: It's like when I used to live in Valencia and I was trying to go on diets, but every single time I was getting on the five Freeway to commute, I would drive past Hamburger Hill and I would have to say no to Burger King and Wendy's and McDonald's and Carls Junior and Jack in the Box. And some people just don't have that kind of will power.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: The rest of our morning was spent watching people struggling with their substance abuse. Some like this man just needed a place to rest, no talking, no judgment. Then this man came along to ask why few were held accountable when it comes to drug use. We didn't have an answer for him.

00:09:02
Speaker 1: Yep, nobody does.

00:09:07
Speaker 3: Which brings us to one of the owners of Starlight Market and liquor store. And we emphasize the word liquor because a lot of it is sold here. Mohammed Albaroque sat down to complain that San Francisco has been a revolving door for repeat offenders.

00:09:23
Speaker 9: They can be and all that drama they get caught, You think that they're not coming back in a month, in two and three, the second day they're after they come back, they can back, and all that drama, all that.

00:09:37
Speaker 2: It's the same small group of people doing this stuff over and over and over and over again.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: Could you imagine how miserable your life must be if you're operating a liquor store in the tenderloin and how often do you think that guy has gun stuck in his face?

00:09:56
Speaker 2: Well, you remember what we found out last year when the city Attorney soon a couple of those places in the Tenderloine because they were also selling a whole bunch of stuff they weren't supposed to, including having illegal gambling machines.

00:10:08
Speaker 1: Oh yes, you know, the police arrest all of it.

00:10:13
Speaker 9: You'd think, you know, some punishment would come out of it, but that's not the case.

00:10:18
Speaker 10: It is not compassion to leave people on the street suffering.

00:10:21
Speaker 3: In the District attorney.

00:10:22
Speaker 2: Best decision San Francisco ever made dumping Chase a Boudin there was a period where counties started to get their act together.

00:10:33
Speaker 1: They dumped Chase A. Boudin in San Francisco, they dumped Pammy Price, and Alameda, they dumped George Gascon in Los Angeles County. Orange County voters rejected their Soros candidate, who was running against Todd Spitzer. But it's almost as if you take two steps forward, one step back, two step forward, one step back. We re elected Gavin Newsom, and we re elected the state legislature and many of the same people that are caught using a lot of these problems in Sacramento.

00:11:04
Speaker 10: It is not compassion to leave people on the street suffering.

00:11:07
Speaker 3: And the District Attorney maintained it has continued it's tough on crime approach during Lurie's first year, But the DA recently told The New York Times that it can take two to three attempts to persuade a judge to hold someone in custody.

00:11:23
Speaker 1: That is insane. The system needs to be on the same page for this to work. If the judges just don't have any interest in putting people in jail when they break the law, then what's the point of arresting them? What's the point of prosecuting them. What's the point of showing up for jury duty and convicting them. If the judges are going to drop the ball every single time, that.

00:11:51
Speaker 3: May explain why people end up back on the street. Shortly after being arrested, the word quickly spread that we were on this corner. One well known local resident JJ Smith.

00:12:06
Speaker 1: Hey, it's JJ. That's our guy.

00:12:10
Speaker 3: Well known local resident JJ Smith, an activist for more crackdowns in the Tenderloin, came to offer his assessment of the situation in the Tenderloin.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: All you got to do is watch any video that JJ shoots on a daily basis, and you would see things that you should not and cannot be tolerated in a civil society.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: No, it's really shocking. In fact, you shouldn't pull up his Twitter account if you have kids around or anyone who can't really stomach something truly awful, because that's what he is filming every single day. Do you remember we had him on about this about a year ago where somebody was o ding in the Tenderloin and they were trying to give him narcand to revive him and the other drugs drug addicts around like stop it. You're gonna kill us high. Oh yeah.

00:13:01
Speaker 7: The drug crisis that they have out here is that's still the same, the same, That's still the same.

00:13:08
Speaker 1: The homeless issue.

00:13:09
Speaker 5: There's a lot of people that's homelessness has been disappearing, but.

00:13:12
Speaker 3: It's not clear how many of those have actually found housing or are now living on the streets in other neighborhoods. The city likes to say that some have left thanks to the Journey Home program, which pays for them to return to the cities they came from.

00:13:28
Speaker 1: Money well spent. It's like that old Elvis Presley song, return to Sender.

00:13:35
Speaker 3: The supervisor for this district, Belal Mahmoud, assured us there is a lot more positive happening in the Tenderloin than we witnessed, like these three new beat officers now assigned to this area. In January, the Tenderloin opened its first ever youth violence prevention program for young adults ages fourteen to twenty four. One big change the city will no longer open any new homeless shelters in the Tenderloin. It has always taken the brunt of this crisis for the entire city.

00:14:08
Speaker 1: They'll put them in SMA. Now, okay, but here's the deal. Shouldn't you allocate your dollars where the problem is, Like, for example, the Los Angeles Police Department or Long Beach Police Department. Let's say they have boats because the city is a coastal city, so it would make sense for the police department to have boats. Well, there are certain council districts they're going to have all the boats. You don't need any boats in the inland portions of the city because there's no water. Why would you treat other issues any differently. If you know that one portion of your city deals with a problem that is kind of unique to them, that's where you allocate your resources. It's common sense.

00:14:58
Speaker 11: For too long, in this neighborhood, we have concentrated services to send people to without the appropriate types of.

00:15:05
Speaker 12: Services to support them.

00:15:06
Speaker 11: The commitment we've made with the mayor and our office going into the when we took office a year ago.

00:15:11
Speaker 2: They want the Los Angeles model where we build homeless shelters in every single neighborhood to attract them to every single neighborhood, which is how Venice got destroyed.

00:15:20
Speaker 1: If you look to Los Angeles and you say to yourself. We should be more like them. You need to reevaluate your critical thinking skills.

00:15:31
Speaker 11: Was no more. But it's going to take time to undo decades of bad policy decisions that have affected this neighborhood.

00:15:39
Speaker 3: There is, however, some signs of change that you may not see. Two shelters recently closed in the Tendeloid. In their place, the city is opening sobering centers in other parts of the city. So sixty percent of San Francisco's shelters are located in two places, the and the Soma neighborhood. That's why.

00:16:02
Speaker 2: And by the way, this has led to residents in Soma and the Tenderloin trying to bring about a lawsuit saying that concentrating the homeless in our neighborhoods violates our civil rights.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you live there, you certainly don't want all the homeless people in the city at your doorstep.

00:16:22
Speaker 3: That's why so many people have argued that places like the Tenderloin are drug containment zones. And let's remind people that the Tenderloin has the highest concentration of families and children in San Francisco.

00:16:37
Speaker 2: Oh, that is dark. All the kids live with all the homeless. That's an education, LeeAnne Melendez once again, everybody, eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number.

00:16:54
Speaker 1: What eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do show at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny, don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy, we're just about to hit the halfway point of today's show. If you want to continue listening to us all weekend long, that's easy to do.

00:17:16
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts. Like, let's say you want to go back because you just heard the name Pamela Price and you're like, wait, who was that? Absolutely well, if you want to educate yourself on who was Pamela Price and what she did to Alameda County.

00:17:35
Speaker 13: I've been bipped several times.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: Search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts nipping his back, whether it's the Apple podcast app.

00:17:43
Speaker 13: She called me a crime boss.

00:17:45
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio, Fear, Fear, Doom and Gloom Spotify.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: She won't prosecute cases.

00:17:53
Speaker 2: Search for the John Phillips Show hit subscribe, you get download all your episodes. Quite frankly, you could do a google on the YouTube.

00:18:01
Speaker 14: She's Too Soft on Crime.

00:18:03
Speaker 2: Or you can get the KABC app, the KSFO app, or the KMJ now app because we're on in the Central Valley Saturdays at two. Either way you will learn all about Pammy Price and why you should definitely not vote for her because she's running again.

00:18:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and Randy, this is our last day in Santa Fe. After today's show, we'll both be back in the state of California. Why are you trying to depress me? Well, you're flat American, so who knows you might be here longer than you think you are. I'll be glad to be back, but it's been a wonderful, wonderful week from here, and not having to drive for seven days always makes me feel completely recharged. And then I'll feel completely drained as soon as I get on the four h five on Monday. One of the conversations we had this morning, we know that New York gets a lot of love when it comes to food. We know San Francisco gets a lot of love when it comes to their cuisine, and deservedly so. But there are two places in America. I think that are great food spots that don't get enough credit. One is Louisiana and the other is New Mexico. The food in New Mexico is just incredible. I could eat New Mexican food every single day. In fact, I have this week. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't like show at gmail dot com. And right now it's time to open up the California Crime Bludder.

00:19:42
Speaker 5: It's happened yet again.

00:19:45
Speaker 13: Nice see time for the California Crime Bludder and Randy.

00:19:52
Speaker 1: The first edition involves legos.

00:19:55
Speaker 2: Okay, so we've heard about a lot of lego theft over the last couple of years, usually involving people smashing and grabbing lego collectible stores and stealing things and then selling them on eBay. Well, now we've got a different kind of scam where somebody goes into a target, they take they purchase a big box of expensive Lego, They dump out all the contents and they replace them with pasta, seal up the box and try.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: To return it. Mamma Mia.

00:20:30
Speaker 2: For more on the newest lego scam here is cbs LA and.

00:20:36
Speaker 15: New here at six. Irvine police say they have busted a serial thief targeting high end Lego sets. Officers telling cbsla's Michelle Jeely, the suspect swamped out bags of plastic bricks for pasta.

00:20:52
Speaker 10: Police say the target shopper in Irvine went for expensive Star Wars and Marvel Lego sets. He committed his crimes, say when he returned the collectibles for cash instead of handing over a complete set of Lego pieces. Jirell Augustine is accused of filling the box with something you'd expect in the kitchen, pasta.

00:21:14
Speaker 1: You know what. The police departments calling him, what's that? The chef boy yor d thief.

00:21:21
Speaker 16: Yeah, so one of the cases that occurred here in Orange County. They share that they opened the box and instead of Legos, they found bags of dried pasta.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: The scam we talk in Rotini joke's on you and sell his dinner.

00:21:36
Speaker 10: The scam, investigators say, is to mimic the sound of Legos when you shake the box. Twenty eight year old Augustine from the city of Paramount allegedly stole Lego figures and other pieces from the sets, sealed up the box.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: Yes, you heard it right, La County criminal trying to commit crimes in Orange County and gets caught.

00:21:54
Speaker 1: How often is that the case? So why Spitzer put up those billboards?

00:22:01
Speaker 10: Twenty eight year old Augustine from the city of Paramount allegedly stole lego figures and other pieces from the sets, sealed up the boxes, and got refunds at target in places like Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Westminster, as well as out of state.

00:22:15
Speaker 1: Boy, he was doing this all over the place. Oh yeah, he's thought this thing through. I love that our elected officials never think anything through, but the criminals do.

00:22:25
Speaker 10: The loss totaled about thirty four thousand dollars.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: Thirty four grand in this lego scam. Okay, isn't that grand theft? Yes, Irvine Police Department.

00:22:36
Speaker 10: Earlier this week, Irvine PD tracked Augustine to his apartment in La County and arrested him. They seized all kinds of legos.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: This is the exact kind of crime you would assume. Irvine PD has to spend their time on.

00:22:49
Speaker 1: The Great Lego Caper. They don't have a lot to do well. Occasionally, domestic violence calls over at Katie Porter's house.

00:22:57
Speaker 10: They seized all kinds of legos, peace sorted in plastic display containers, and at least fifteen bags of Elbow pasta.

00:23:10
Speaker 1: So he was using easy Mac.

00:23:15
Speaker 16: And these were definitely sets that were consistent with what he was purchasing and then returning. These were Star Wars sets and Marvel sets, which have a very high value in secondary market.

00:23:26
Speaker 10: Run Policeay Augustine is linked to dozens of cases across the country in places like Texas and Tennessee, from New Jersey on down to Florida.

00:23:35
Speaker 1: He's a serial lego thief. What has gone wrong in your life where this is what you choose to do as an adult?

00:23:45
Speaker 10: All legos from Target, some of the boxes containing pasta intervine. Michelle Jeley CBSLA.

00:23:53
Speaker 2: You know, we're getting really close to the day where they're going to start locking up the legos at Target.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: Right along with the shampoo. All right, Randy, it's time to reopen the blotter is to catch his dummy. We could make this stuff up if we tried. I said, hell no, very boy, let me get up one out of here.

00:24:20
Speaker 17: It's the California Crime Bloader and this edition involves bears, not the kind at the zoo, and not the three hundred pound guys with beards and leather chaps.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Now, this is a scam you may have heard about a while back where somebody decided that they had the most brilliant idea to defraud their insurance company where they were going to have their car parked out in front of their house, dress up in a bear costume, and destroy the interior of the car, filing a clay with the insurance company saying they were the victim of a bear attack. You can't make this stuff up. For more, here is CBSLA.

00:25:10
Speaker 3: Update tonight on the case of some clever criminals a group of people dressing up as bears and trashing their own cars for insurance money.

00:25:20
Speaker 11: The CBSLA assignment editor Mike Rodgers at to ESK, Mike, they weren't that clever, because of course they were caught and now sentence.

00:25:26
Speaker 12: Yeah, I think it was the opposable thumbs in the video that gave them away when this whole thing was caught on security cameras.

00:25:31
Speaker 1: We'll show you the video here.

00:25:32
Speaker 12: These people dressed up in these bear costumes and then allegedly ransacked their own cars.

00:25:37
Speaker 18: There.

00:25:37
Speaker 12: It is the bear climbing through the front seat here. California Department of Insurance prosecuted this case. Everybody involved in this or a.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: Three out, somebody had to think this through. This is you know, this is premeditated to the point where they had to buy a bear costume?

00:25:52
Speaker 1: Were the bears lemonading with Louisville sluggers?

00:25:55
Speaker 12: Everybody involved in this, or three out of the four people involved in this were all sent us to one hundred and eighty days in jail. But it's one hundred and eighty days in weekend jail.

00:26:04
Speaker 1: Wait, what is weekend jail? Shouldn't you send them to the zoo so they.

00:26:09
Speaker 12: Are free during the week and then they check themselves into the jail on the weekends. And they do that for one hundred and eighty days.

00:26:17
Speaker 1: It's like they're grounded. I wonder if they rented those bear costumes who they bought them, because if they bought them, they're definitely doing this again.

00:26:26
Speaker 12: It's been unusual, but that is what the judge ordered, and that is what the sentence is. There's also some restitution involved in all of this. The Calfornia Department of Insurances, they're always on the lookout for fraudsters, and if you do that, you too could end up in weekend jail.

00:26:38
Speaker 1: Now, fifty two weeks in a year, that's a lot of weekend. That's at a lot of time. Yeah, okay, thanks.

00:26:43
Speaker 2: So don't dress up like a bear and trash your car because they're onto that scam.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: Bad yogi. All right, Randy, let's reopen the Blotterer.

00:26:58
Speaker 5: It's happened yet again.

00:27:00
Speaker 13: What's you dum dum, dun, dun, dun dun, breats the Califonia crime blodder with John.

00:27:11
Speaker 1: And another jewelry store got hit, this time in San Francisco.

00:27:15
Speaker 2: This one after this place just opened six months ago. Here is kron four.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: Take a look at this.

00:27:23
Speaker 6: San Francisco police say they are looking for this man right here, seen in this blue T shirt. He suspected of stealing hundreds of dollars worth of jewelry. This happened at Robletto Jewelers in the outer Mission. The owner telling Crown for his a man Harry, that this is a big hit for a small business.

00:27:41
Speaker 18: In just a few seconds, Robleto Jewelers on Mission near Leo Street lost a substantial amount of jewelry, but It started as what co owner Silvio Robletto thought would be a great sale.

00:27:53
Speaker 14: We didn't want to believe it that they took stuff from us.

00:27:56
Speaker 13: He says.

00:27:57
Speaker 18: This man came in with a stack of cash.

00:27:59
Speaker 1: You can see it in the video around like six. Yeah, there's your first red flag. Yeah. If someone's gonna spend a ton of money at the jewelry store, they're gonna want some advantage miles for that.

00:28:14
Speaker 14: You can see it in the video around like six to like eight thousand dollars and twenties on the table. And he told me that he wanted to purchase some jewelry, like a lot of it, So he kept bringing out.

00:28:24
Speaker 1: This is even more suspicious. I love the fact that there were no red flags at any point in this interaction.

00:28:33
Speaker 18: So he kept bringing out more gold for him to see. Robleto says, the man told him he wanted some of the pieces but had to get more money, so he put it aside for him.

00:28:44
Speaker 2: He was like, all right, I'm wait, I need more money than my stacks on stacks on stacks.

00:28:49
Speaker 1: These are like these old timey flim flams slight of hand tricks. That's what's about to happen, so he put it aside for him.

00:28:58
Speaker 14: He was like, all right, I'm gonna be right back when. The way I realized that he had took something was because I always checked the jewelry or however I hear and the heaviest chain I had in the showcase was missing. We went over everything with my dad and we had realized he took like about like six to eight chains.

00:29:15
Speaker 18: San Francisco police believed the suspect it took more than nine hundred and fifty dollars worth of merchandise, but Robletto says it was closer to twenty thousand dollars. He believes the suspect slid some chains into his pocket, but it's difficult to see based on the position of the camera.

00:29:32
Speaker 14: When I was distracted calculating how much all was get to charge him for the piece of the jewelry, he would do right here and he'd drop him in his in his pocket.

00:29:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're in the jewelry game, you gotta know this is the oldest trick in the book. Okay, this guy sounds pretty young. What do you think the odds are he was playing around on his phone.

00:29:50
Speaker 18: Robletto only opened the store with his father about six months ago. He says he thought about closing for the rest of the week, but his dad encouraged him to keep going.

00:30:00
Speaker 14: I mean, we're barely starting off, and for somebody to come in and take around twenty thousand dollars with the jewelry's like pretty. It's like a hard hit for us. But you know, we're still going to keep opening up.

00:30:09
Speaker 18: San Francisco Police say no arrest seven made and anyone with any information should contact SFPD in San Francisco.

00:30:17
Speaker 1: Amanda Harry Crown four.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: News, nobody in this day and age is buying a whole bunch thousands of dollars of jewelry in cash.

00:30:28
Speaker 1: Well. I think it should be easy to find out who stole the seven chains, whoever dresses up as mister t for Halloween and San Francisco, that's your guy. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number? What eight hundred two two two five two two two And right now it's time to reopen the California crime bladder.

00:30:56
Speaker 5: It's happened yet again. This wow, wow, what's up you?

00:31:00
Speaker 13: Tun Thu Dumb reached the Califonia crime Blodder with junk.

00:31:08
Speaker 1: As if Facebook needs any more negative publicity, they made the blotter too. Okay, this is an interesting one.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: In San Diego, a lot of people have built ADUs in their backyards or converted their garages so they could rent them out, and they put a lot of those listings on Zillo.

00:31:28
Speaker 1: Well.

00:31:28
Speaker 2: Apparently scammers have been stealing the listings, coppying and pasting all the information, putting them on posts on Facebook. But to any perspective, renter saying in order for you to see the apartment, you have to pay seventy five dollars, okay, and apparently some people are falling for it.

00:31:55
Speaker 1: For mare. Here is CBS eight in San Diego.

00:31:59
Speaker 18: Tonight warning about scammers praying on would be renters by copying listings and asking for money to see the property.

00:32:06
Speaker 19: Good Evening, I'm Marcella.

00:32:07
Speaker 20: Lee, I'm Carlo chicketto I viewer reached out to News eight after discovering the listing for her family's rental home was used in such a scheme. The Asmelda Pettez joins us Live from there mesa with details Esmerelda.

00:32:21
Speaker 1: Well.

00:32:21
Speaker 21: I spoke with the daughter of the property owners who listed their ADU on Zillo.

00:32:26
Speaker 1: But here's what Ree is concerned.

00:32:27
Speaker 21: They were not charging people to view it, and they hadn't posted it anywhere else.

00:32:32
Speaker 2: Is there any situation where you pay to view an apartment for lease?

00:32:39
Speaker 1: If I'm a buyer or I'm a potential renter and they want to charge me to look at the property, you move on immediately. It's not even like you take ten seconds to think about it either.

00:32:54
Speaker 8: A two bad went bath ADU front has been listed on Zillo since January. Jessicat your whom is the owner's daughter? She says, just this Sunday, in the middle of the afternoon, her parents got an unexpected visit from someone asking to see the unit.

00:33:09
Speaker 19: A nice lady came up and said, Hi, I'm looking for the ADU. I'd love to see it. The problem is is that they had no idea who she was because she did not apply through Zillo, their only official listing.

00:33:22
Speaker 8: Jessica says, they've received more than a hunter.

00:33:25
Speaker 1: You know what that means.

00:33:25
Speaker 2: If they didn't apply through Zillo, that means that their information did get sold to every real estate broker in the Tri County area.

00:33:33
Speaker 1: Oh, if you've ever made that mistake before, you quickly learn how to unsubscribe from lists.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: We were looking at an open house just because we are curious out here in Santa Fe, and so I put in my phone number on Zillo to schedule an appointment to look at the open house, and suddenly every real estate agent in New Mexico had my phone number.

00:34:00
Speaker 1: I bet you in Colorado too.

00:34:03
Speaker 8: Jessica says they've received more than one hundred inquiries, but no serious offers. Coincidentally, her parents already had a showing schedule, so the woman was able to see the unit. But that is when they asked the woman how she found the listing. She said Facebook the red.

00:34:20
Speaker 19: Flag, they were able to pull it up. And the more they talked to this very nice lady, the more they realized that someone had gotten a hold of their listing in Zillo. And in addition to that, they were charging people and not just any people low income to fix income individuals.

00:34:42
Speaker 8: Jessica started digging. She discovered someone copied the photos and description and dropped the price to lot renters in.

00:34:49
Speaker 19: So they take every photo from the Zillo listings, and then they are so lazy they'll just copy and paste the description of the Zillo into the Facebook post.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: They're gonna write their own description of the apartment that's not theirs. They're not gonna take that kind of time.

00:35:06
Speaker 19: And then they'll adjust the price. Though that's the biggest I think draw is that they reduce it significantly.

00:35:12
Speaker 2: Jessica, Okay, your other red flag. If the ADU is under three thousand dollars, it's probably a scam.

00:35:20
Speaker 1: That would be a safe assumption.

00:35:23
Speaker 2: If the place that you see and ad for is noticeably cheaper than everything else around, probably not real.

00:35:32
Speaker 8: Jessica messaged the person behind the fake Facebook post. They responded right away and asked for money to schedule a showing.

00:35:40
Speaker 19: When the woman came, she was advised seventy five dollars to see the property, but when I inquired, I was going to be charged eighty dollars.

00:35:49
Speaker 1: Any tight So there's a sliding scale for this scam. Well, there's inflation.

00:35:54
Speaker 8: Any tight rental market, a below market price can be hard to resist, actually, for someone desperate to find housing. Jessica says she's not sure anyone actually paid, but that's what worries her family. The woman who showed up never paid, She just came to see the unit.

00:36:12
Speaker 2: When I called this you just figured out where the house was or did they put the address on the listing?

00:36:19
Speaker 1: None of this makes sense to me.

00:36:22
Speaker 19: When I called this impersonator, it went straight to voicemail. And then of course when they tried to get me to pay them, there was a completely different phone number associated with the Apple Pay and then there was a completely different number associated with the Venmo.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: People work really hard on these really really really stupid scams.

00:36:43
Speaker 1: You know, if you're willing to work that hard, just go get an honest job.

00:36:48
Speaker 21: And according to Zillo, there are some red flags that you could watch out for, like a deal that seems too good to be true. Also, they say if you feel pressured to send money or personal information for seeing the property and to verify that this is a real listing, they recommend it just visiting in person or sending someone you trust live and Mira.

00:37:09
Speaker 8: Mesa smell that baits music.

00:37:10
Speaker 21: It's back to you, Carlo.

00:37:12
Speaker 1: There you go. Just a warning.

00:37:14
Speaker 2: If you see an apartment or an adu for rent that's way cheaper than everything else and they want to charge you money to see it, they don't have that property.

00:37:23
Speaker 1: They're scamming you.