ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A sinister crime wave is sweeping the area without even a knock at your door. Fake paperwork is being used to steal entire homes, and you can protect yourself with the click of a button.
One of the most recent cases involves some unusual twists and turns that led to the discovery in Dellwood.
NewsNation affiliate FOX 2 News caught up with the accused suspects. Forgery suspect Angel Mileur avoided most of our questions as her co-defendant, William Askew, watched and smiled nearby as he recorded our interaction.
They’re accused of attempting to steal a $91,000 home on Chambers Road.
“After doing this investigation, I realized just how easy it really is to do this,” Lt. Mark Brown, North County Police Cooperative, said. “When we actually made the arrest, the following day, this house was going to be sold.”
The sale might have gone through if the City of Dellwood hadn’t been involved.
“I’m like, ok here’s the twist,” Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones said, explaining that Dellwood owned the property when this all went down. The mayor told us it was donated by a resident so the city could make it into a new police precinct.
Jones said Mileur and Askew claimed that the prior owner signed it over to them. Jones double-checked.
“He said, ‘Mayor, I would never do anything like that.’ He said, ‘Matter of fact, when they say I gave them the property, I was in jail,’” Jones said.
Charges filed in new case involving 2 homes
While FOX 2 was investigating this case, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed charges in a new case involving two homes across the street from one another in Florissant. It is just the beginning, prosecutors say, for James Townes, who’s described in court records as “causing havoc in the community” while “forging hundreds of papers with the recorder of deeds.”
“It appalls me to think someone would want to take someone else’s property,” St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds Gerald E. Smith said. “The bad actors are trying to find more innovative ways to do what they do.”
You may remember that Graceland was recently the target of someone accused of forging a document to try to steal the property. A Missouri woman pleaded guilty to the scheme and is being sentenced next month.
Property fraud is ‘quiet’: St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds
Most recorder of deeds offices have a fraud alert system so you can be notified anytime a document is filed at an address you submit. You can also help track an elderly neighbor. It is already public record; you’re just being alerted to it so you can stop anything irregular.
“One of the problems with property fraud is it’s quiet,” Smith said.
While walking with the defendants in the Dellwood case, Mileur claimed she did nothing wrong, and that she had audio recordings of her police interrogation that would make it clear what happened. Mileur has not contacted FOX 2 with said recordings.
Court records say defendant Mileur is also on probation for a separate forgery charge out of St. Charles County.
Sign up for St. Louis County’s Property Fraud Alert here. You’ll find most county recorders have similar alert systems on their websites.
