Architectural thieves ransack old houses
OMAHA, Neb. – In a world where shabby is chic and vintage is charming, thieves are stripping historic farmsteads and old rural houses of furnishings and fixtures to supply a growing black market.
The ransacking of architectural details and other items has been going on for a long time, in big cities and the countryside alike.
But preservationists around the country say the Shabby Chic design movement and the advent of online marketplaces such as eBay have made the problem worse.
“Before, people were stealing things like mantels but they didn’t have anywhere to sell,” said Elizabeth Brown, who runs the historic preservation division of the Alabama Historical Commission.
And historic sites in rural areas seem to be the hardest hit, simply because it is easier to get away with the crime in out-of-the-way places.
Old farmsteads, houses, churches and schools have been ransacked of doorknobs, moldings, mantelpieces, chests of drawers – even the markers that designate the sites as historic. Barns have been stripped of their planks to supply the burgeoning market in “reclaimed” lumber, often used to make fine wood floors.
Greg Miller, a historian at the Nebraska State Historical Society, said his family left a car in the driveway, lights on in the farmhouse and the radio going at their weekend getaway to put off thieves. It didn’t work.
At least four times in the past decade, thieves took bureaus, furniture, and a set of figurines of three little pigs playing instruments.
“The television was in there, but they didn’t care about that, they didn’t care about the radio, they didn’t care about the toaster,” Miller said. “They had something specific in mind.”
Across the country, most state preservation offices have stopped disclosing the locations of the buildings that they are restoring or that they list on the National Registry of Historic Sites for fear they may be providing road maps for thieves.
“It is always been a problem and we’ve gotten to the point that we’re very cautious about telling people, even when we’re marketing a house, where houses are that we know are empty,” Brown said. “That’s like saying, ‘Here, come strip me.’ “
Not only are thefts from historic homes hard to prevent, they are hard to prosecute. Tracking the stolen items is difficult and is often given low priority by law enforcement.
The demand for such items is clear: A search of “vintage” in the home decor category of eBay results in a list of more than 4,000 items.
Christy Davis, an assistant director at the Kansas State Historical Society, said Shabby Chic decorating is “the hot thing to do. Those kinds of design movements I think have created a market, or maybe it’s vice versa.”