Jill Porter | Chasing down creeps who prey on homeowners
WHEN Charles Faust allegedly stole a property belonging to a former city housing official, he wasn't shy about it. When he filed the phony deed transferring the property to himself, he smiled right into the Department of Records camera designed to prevent such fraud.
WHEN Charles Faust allegedly stole a property belonging to a former city housing official, he wasn't shy about it.
When he filed the phony deed transferring the property to himself, he smiled right into the Department of Records camera designed to prevent such fraud.
Talk about chutzpah.
But it was that audacity that got him arrested, albeit briefly, after a wild chase through City Hall last week.
Faust, who allegedly stole a property from Tom Massaro, housing director under former Mayor Bill Green, showed up at City Hall last week, asking for help with L&I violations on another property he owns.
Faust wasn't completely brazen: He waited in a stairwell and sent an emissary into City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's office who pretended to be him.
It happened to be Wednesday, the same day my column about the Massaro theft appeared in the newspaper.
"I said, 'Oh, my God! He's either dumb or he didn't read the paper today or he's here for revenge,' " said Miller, who was instrumental in having the D.A.'s office investigate Massaro's case.
Massaro was alerted that Faust was at City Hall. He rushed there and confronted Faust and his accomplice.
Both men ran. Massaro chased Faust through City Hall corridors and stairwells, despite serious health problems that have repeatedly landed him in the hospital in recent years.
"I just remember thinking: He's not going to get away," Massaro said.
Faust raced down a flight of stairs onto the second floor - where the mayor's office is.
"He didn't know it was the most policed part of the building," said Richard Amos, Miller's administrative assistant, who was also chasing him.
When police saw Faust running and others in hot pursuit, they accosted him. His companion got away.
"It was unbelievable, just unbelievable," Councilwoman Miller said.
No charges were filed against Faust, since the D.A.'s office hasn't completed its investigation.
But he was held for a short time for other violations, and then released on bail, according to Miller's office.
Massaro was still elated at the capture.
"Hopefully this will deter him and bring him to justice," he said.
Massaro was hospitalized in January when he decided to sell a property that he'd rehabilitated and rented out until 2000, when it was destroyed by fire.
That's how he found out that the historic residence, at 6316 Germantown Ave., was no longer in his name. A new deed with his notarized "signature" had been filed, turning the property over to his "brother" Charles Faust, for a dollar.
It was ironic that the scam victimized Massaro, the city's previous housing czar. But the fraud, easily accomplished with a blank deed and a clueless or complicit notary public, has victimized hundreds, if not thousands, of people - most of them elderly, ill and poor.
The thieves focus on property that appears abandoned or unoccupied while the owners are often in the hospital or nursing home or living with kin - and forge documents that give them title.
City officials instituted some reforms since my colleague Bob Warner and I wrote about the scam in 2000 - including the above-mentioned camera that photographs everyone who files a new deed.
Massaro's high-profile case has provoked more changes in court procedure, a potential change in city law, and motivated him to create a task force to study other possible reforms.
Massaro said he's reached out to the Philadelphia Board of Realtors, the Black Clergy, the NAACP, and various neighborhood organizations, who've all expressed interest in helping him, he said. Miller is scheduled to meet with him and other Council members this week, as well.
Last week, Councilman Bill Greenlee introduced a bill requiring the Records Department to notify homeowners by mail, in the newspaper and on the city's Web site whenever anyone files a deed, mortgage or other property-related document.
That way legitimate owners can be quickly alerted to potential fraud.
You can bet one thing: Charles Faust probably won't be among those who show up to file forged documents any time soon.
Last week's incident no doubt wiped that smile right off of his face. *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns: