Incredibly, in many areas the offices that take home change of ownership papers don’t check them for being valid. So, forgeries happen and houses can be stolen.
Teresa Bidwell learned that her house had been stolen when contractors she hired to make minor renovations found another crew already there—and much of the Philadelphia row home gutted. …”When I went to City Hall, there were maybe 20 people in the deed recorder’s office, using its computers to research properties owned by those who, like me, live outside the city. When I told the clerk, ‘I’m here because my house was stolen’, they scattered like cockroaches,” Bidwell says.
That’s because they were using City Hall computers to find homes to steal.
But wait, it gets even crazier. A Daily News reporter stole the Empire State Building.