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If you thought Portlanders were mad about auto thefts, just wait until you try to steal their houses. Last week, WW told the story of a fraudulent deed filed in the Multnomah County Recorder’s Office for Ron Henne’s house in North Portland, which sits empty for much of the year (“A Friend in Deed,” March 27). Henne nearly fell prey to someone gaming the system for recording property ownership, which observers say is ripe for fraud. The tale sent a chill down homeowners’ spines, judging from the story’s web traffic and the irate responses. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Brandi Morgan, via Facebook: “They definitely should be scrubbing signatures. This is terrifying for homeowners.”
hillsfar, via Reddit: “Property, whether a house or a car, etc., represents human lifespan expended with blood, sweat and tears to obtain.
“To steal a car is to steal years of effort—even someone who makes $100,000 per year has to pay for a place to live, utilities, food, etc., and work a job over YEARS to pay for that car.
“To steal a home is to steal a lifetime’s effort.
“These kinds of crimes need more vigilance, a quick means of resolution, and swift and strong punishment. Or they will keep happening again and again to vulnerable people.”
AltOnMain, via Reddit: “Work should be done to prevent this, but it’s a complicated scam and the homeowner isn’t exactly the intended victim. From the article, it sounds like the criminal had intended to defraud a bank or financial institute. I imagine the resulting fraud would be something for the financial institute and the criminal to sort out and the homeowner could simply restore their title and move on.
“It just seems like a very risky fraud, and I am not sure what the endgame is. You would need to receive the stolen funds, so I guess you set up a fraudulent bank account too? By the end of the day, you have committed felony fraud four or five times and probably violated federal law too, so you are sort of hoping that you don’t get caught during this six-month con, but there are a lot of opportunities to be caught, and if you are caught, you are certainly doing hard time.”
Jaime Diedrich, via Facebook: “While this is really crappy…this guy is the problem. He owns a second home and just leaves it vacant, further contributing to the housing shortage. Also, if he plans to give it to his kids upon his death....why not just give it to them now so they can do something with it? Boomers, I tell ya.”
@CHold, via Twitter: “Mans threw on his Blazers gear, broke out his Blazers mug for the story like a true Portlander. I hope they throw the guy who tried to snatch his house in a pit.”
OFF THE WATERFRONT
What is it with Portland that we can’t keep waterside restaurants open [”McCormick & Schmick’s Restaurant in RiverPlace to Close Sunday,” wweek.com, March 28]? Portland is located at the confluence of two rivers, yet one can count the number of waterside restaurants on one hand! The Newport has been closed for years. The restaurant next to River’s Edge Hotel changed hands many times and closed during the pandemic. Who Song and Larry’s left the banks of the Willamette, and their location is now a set of condos.
Our neighbor to the north, Vancouver, a much smaller city, has more waterside restaurants than Portland. I can’t count the number of cities in the U.S. and the world where the dining scene thrives by the water. San Antonio is a prime example, Vienna (Austria) another. Our largely unused riverbanks should be lined with restaurants with docks for boating patrons. Is this another result of our dysfunctional city government and/or rule-bound bureaucracy?
For now, I’ll keep fighting the traffic so that I can enjoy dinner while watching sailboats racing on the Columbia. Or maybe it’s time to move… Xavier Le Hericy South Portland
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com