In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: "Sharpie parties," gatherings of party revelers armed with "Sharpie" magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.
Five years into the U.S. foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.
At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.
The partygoers are handed Sharpie pens on arrival by their hosts and urged to graffiti the walls - a destructive binge that often prompts other acts of vandalism including smashing holes in walls and doors, flooding bathrooms and ripping up floors.
The California spree follows a similar outbreak earlier this year, when teenagers wrecked homes in states including Texas, Florida and Utah after seeing the movie Project X. The film features a house wrecking party sparked by online invitations.
Anna Hazel, an investigator in the Merced district attorney's office in central California, said the use of social media is a very effective way for partygoers to find the address and to track the progress of the party.
It also provides a treasure trove of evidence for the police.
Hazel said in her most recent case of "extensive destruction" to a foreclosed property, the host of the Sharpie party posted an invitation to "Matt's House of Mayhem" on a Facebook page.
See How One Home Was Trashed During a 'Sharpie Party'
At least 100 people turned up. Hundreds of smartphone text messages describing the party were also sent.
They drank alcohol, scrawled profanities on walls, smashed glass, tore up parts of the house and left garbage strewn everywhere.
"We obtained search warrants for Facebook accounts," Hazel said. "It was very useful to us to get access to the social networks. They posted pictures of the party. They were brazen about it."
Three men, aged 21, 24 and 30, were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, burglary and conspiracy. One of them was the son of the evicted former owner.
"The Sharpie party is the newest twist here," said Larry Morse, the district attorney in Merced County, California. Morse said he has investigated vandalized homes after six "Sharpie parties" in recent months.
Andy Krotic, a Californian realtor, said: "It's a growing fad among young people, especially the Twitter crowd. They throw a big party, everyone gets a Sharpie, and they are invited to write on the walls and spray paint."
Krotic said in one recent case partygoers shot arrows through the wall, hitting a room in a neighbor's house.
Banks that own the foreclosed homes are reluctant to pursue the perpetrators, Krotic says, because they don't have the resources to hunt down the miscreants. Even if they're caught, the unwanted publicity from their prosecution would likely incite more parties.
"Usually they leave the damage and just drop the price," Krotic said.
I like that idea Fred! My own house was vandalized and damaged while it was for sale last fall. The vandal took every light fixture out of the bedrooms, baths and kitchen doing as much damage as they wanted. They took anything metal they could find, even shelf brackets. My neighbor passed away and I lived out of town at the time so there was no one to keep an I on it.
This isn't a symptom of a sick economic market, it is a symptom of today's sick society. Bad parenting, sad upbringing, drug addicts and alcoholics everywhere, and the total lack of respect for people and property that these "kids" are being raised with(out).
This has nothing to do w/ this lousy economy...it has all to do w/ parents' lack of skills: teach your very little one respect for everything ! My 1st lesson in respect at about age 4, was that we must not walk on the neighbors' grass...use the sidewalks. Seems trite, but I promise you it isn't. There is no character-building today. My suggestion: get your chldren into sports of any kind; get them into scouting, church... Somewhere, someone will kick their butts, and they will have learned a lesson.
I agree. It is a sympotom of a very sick society. It is sick how many hardworking people are losing their homes to greedy banks who are unwilling to work out personal situations at any cost. Instead they are willing to sell these homes to Chinese investors who are gobbling are country up piece by piece. It is sick that the wealthiest Americans are so wrought with greed that they are covering their eyes and closing their eyes while all of this is taking place. I agree that we are living in a VERY SICK society where investors have no problems outsourcing American jobs in the name of big profit ( Mitt Romney). Where are all the homeless going to live when they cannot afford even a basic apartment? We are going to see more and more of this destruction in this country if the likes of Romney and Ryan are put in to office. Outsourcing jobs, eliminating health benefits, rising fuel and food prices. No jobs. American is a fast race to destruction and the Super Rich are to blame for it. This is all part of their plan. Their goal is to create a permanent underclass in society. This is a war between the rich and middle class, but people are too busy to pay attnetion to it. Keep up the good work. Destroy the banks assets. Make the foreigners pay to rebuild these homes.
This same thing happened frequently in the crash of the 1980s. I do not know of any attempts made to catch any of the offenders. All of them were guilty of vandalism, destruction of property, etc but paid no price. The banks were guilty, too, in that they delayed by months and months the foreclosure process and often could have settled with the occupant and recovered more money from the property. Just for the record, neither Bush nor Obama had anything to do with it and it was not a conservative or liberal issue. Just sayin'.
The banks? What about personal responsibility here? Live within your means, save money for a rainy day, like if you get unemployed and need to look for a job for a few months so you can pay your bills. Its always someone elses fault with you libs never your own. The banks, the GOP, Wall Street, blah, blah, blah. Grow a pair!
OK, so the realtors and the banks are so upset that they have all these foreclosed houses sitting around and yet, they won't reduce the prices or relax the guidelines to loan so they can't sell the foreclosed houses either.
They only have themselves to blame for empty houses just sitting there and people who are eager to buy not being able to do so.
NEVER make excuses for criminals. That's about as stupid as it gets. It's called trespassing and destruction of property. How about if you go on vacation and someone thinks it's vacant and in foreclosure? They trash your house and someone says "Oh well, shouldn't have left it empty!" You don't like that banks won't take a loss? Not your business. Not your property. People like you are part of the problem with this society.
YOWSERS! This is what some RE people pray for. They love to reduce prices, against what a bank or owner wants, and apparently these vandals are just there for them. HORRIBLE! This is definitely going to continue if law is turning a blind eye.
I ageree with you! A lot of the vacant homes do not have titles, the notes were bundeled and sold, once a note is turned into a security it can not be converted back. The banks have to wait 4 years (uncontested) to obtain a quiet title action and be able to sell the illegally forclosed properties. They don't want you to know this. The original purchasers could reclaim their property if the note was bundeled and sold as a security. Hence, "shadow inventory" which means empty houses sitting vacant. Poor banks....
As a realtor, we cannot control the foreclosures in neighborhoods personally I would love for the banks when they take possession to have a company come and do standard make ready Im not even talking about flooring, just make them livable and presentable. The flooring would help them get a better price. Then they could get them on the market faster say 30 day instead of them sitting fr 6 months and then they are tough sell. As for the price we have no control over that especially when it come to forclosures the bank is attempting to recoup what is owed and depending on the property condition that is not always possible. Drive around you area a look at how many home have a foreclosure letter on the door and the watch how long it take to actually get put on the market. Then think of this how much in property taxes are not being collected,how much value are you losing on your own home that is out of our control. Sorry
You are correct. I was a teacher for 13 years and there is no consequenses for actions. If there is a classroom problem the admin will back the students and question "what did you do to cause this." Parents suport the students especially from white parents. Political correctness. Why are teen student suicides up. It again is a white trend. Generally not seen in blacks which children go through a tougher up bringing. Generally black parents back the teacher, white parents do not. Watch the hotel.com ad. It is the teen girl which makes the call to which hotel to stay.
Dont blame the Realtor. They dont set the prices on foreclosed listings, the banks do. Banks could have done ALOT to avoid this whole thing and the massive inventory of bank owned homes if they worked with the homeowners instead of taking the house.
First off, the banks do lower the prices several times until they can get someone to buy the house. Second, relaxing the guidelines to get loans is the whole reason the housing market died. They gave loans to people that shouldn't have been able to get that loan and that is why all these houses went into foreclosure, So the stricter guidelines now is good and means they actually learned from their lesson, which doesn't happen much anymore.
