PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A woman was about to close on a home when copper thieves struck, putting her plans on hold.
This isn’t the first time Veneeca Neal’s hopes of home ownership have burst — the house she was looking at before this one also had its copper stolen.
“They had the house close to $300,000 and they lowered it down to $120,000 because of the amount of stuff they had taken and the amount of damage they done to that property,” Neal said.
Now, thieves have struck her second choice — ignoring no trespassing signs and gaining access through the crawlspace. Neal visited the property Tuesday to find three to four inches of standing water around the house, damaging the foundation. There was also several inches of standing water under the home.
“It does happen way more often than it needs to,” said realtor Jeremy Perkins.
Vacant homes provide the perfect storm for copper thieves. So what can others looking to buy do to safeguard their investment?
“With permission from the seller, they can elect to put up a security camera of their own if the sellers don’t have one in place,” Perkins said, “[and] checking on the property regularly.”
Neal has a $25,000 down payment and a closing costs assistance grant, but if they can’t bring the house up to code in less than a month, she’ll lose that money.
“If I don’t have the grant, I can’t buy the house and that means I have to go out and do more work,” Neal said. “I just want the community to know it hurts us. You know, we work hard to get where we are and then we have to come back to something like this. It devastates you, but then again, I’m going to keep a smile on my face, keep fighting through cause I’m not a quitter.”
The plumbing has been replaced, but water damage still needs to be repaired. The homeowner has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the added expenses.
