The District Attorney’s Office has accused a 50-year-old man of using forged deeds and notary stamps to steal six properties in the city’s booming Point Breeze neighborhood.
Robert Stokes, who lives in the neighborhood, was charged with 47 counts of forgery, theft, and tampering with records.
Stokes, who has a long criminal record, filed his first forged deed to the city Records Department on Aug. 4, 2017, and his last two on Aug. 17 of that year, prosecutors said. He is alleged to have taken three lots in the 1500 block of South Lambert Street and three more in the same block of adjacent South Capitol Street, all near 21st and Dickinson Streets.
Lots in the gentrifying area sell for between $100,000 and $125,000, according to real estate broker Stuart Cohen of the Mike McCann Team/KW Philly agency.
The city Records Department logged 136 complaints of deed fraud last year, nearly doubling from the previous year. Esack said her unit fields as many as five calls a day from victims of property theft.
In a common technique used by house thieves in the city, Stokes allegedly submitted bogus deeds, which bore the forged signatures of the owners and a notary who supposedly witnessed the transaction. In three instances, the owners were dead. One had been dead for 47 years.
In three of the thefts, prosecutors said, Stokes quickly filed new deeds, using a legitimate notary, to transfer the properties to a business bearing his name. Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Esack, who heads the Economic Crime Unit, said the transfer appeared to be a way to obscure the thefts should a title company examine the sales histories of the lots.
Housing theft has grown as more neighborhoods have gentrified. The city Records Department logged 136 complaints of deed fraud last year, nearly doubling from the previous year. Esack said her unit fields as many as five calls a day from victims of property theft.
Last month, District Attorney Larry Krasner launched a crackdown on housing theft and organized a working group to find ways to close the loopholes that permit the thievery.
Esack worked on the investigation with Detectives Gerald Rocks and Kevin O’Gorman. They launched the inquiry after one victim realized that someone had forged his name on a fake deed. The victim called the District Attorney’s Office.
Stokes turned himself in Wednesday. His criminal record includes a conviction on a firearms charge and five arrests for drug dealing. His last drug-dealing case led to a three- to seven-year prison sentence.
Esack and her team last month charged William E. Johnson III, 43, with stealing multiple houses from the dead. Johnson is accused of forging signatures and notary approvals to take seven houses. As the Inquirer has reported, most of his acquisitions were in the Brewerytown area, another neighborhood of fast-rising property values.
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Man sentenced to prison for stealing home deed without signing loan
A Florida man was sentenced to prison for trying to steal a new $219,000 home by snatching and filing a signed deed without signing loan documents. A jury convicted him in September of grand theft and filing a false document against real property.
She had no idea her home could be stolen. Then she read her junk mail
What Philly is doing to fight deed fraud
In 2019, homeowners submitted 118 deed fraud reports. At that rate, we will receive about the same number in 2019 as 2018. While we don’t anticipate an increase over 2018, which is encouraging, the numbers remain too high. Statistics don’t tell the whole story. Who are the victims? Deed fraud disproportionately affects people of color and the elderly, often the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Domestic and international thieves scour online records for homes with equity. It could be the home you live in, your vacation home, a home of an elderly relative, or rental property you own.
Once they change your home's ownership from YOU to THEM, they re-file the Quitclaim Deed for your home with the proper authorities so it appears your home has been legally sold.
They take out personal loans through banks and online lenders using all your home's equity. You likely won't know you're a victim until you start receiving late payments or foreclosure notices.
Click to see if your home's title has been compromised.
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Everything is stored online these days - including your home's title. Domestic and international cyber-thieves target U.S. homeowners equity in their homes. Removing you from your home's title takes just minutes. Then they forge their name on the title document and refile it. Next, they take out loans using your home's equity and stick you with the payments. You likely won't know until you get a late payment or foreclosure notice from several banks.
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