When Your Neighbor Is a Thief

Such a tempting target for a petty thief – especially one who’s a Luddite! There it sits on the Welcome mat outside a co-op apartment’s door, a crisp copy of today’s newspaper. (Remember those?) Thanks to the Luddite who lives down the hall, it’s gone before the newspaper subscriber wakes up.

The victim of this all-too-common act of petty thievery in a Manhattan co-op spoke to the property manager, who informed him that it was a shareholder problem and management would not get involved. Isn’t there something management can do about such uncooperative behavior among cooperator neighbors?

Attorney Steven Sladkus, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas, answers the question with a question. “What’s it going to take for this building to get involved?” Sladkus tells the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. “For them to take the doormat, too?”

The thieving neighbor’s behavior could be considered objectionable conduct and a violation of house rules. Management should do what it can to prevent theft, as the situation could escalate. Who’s to say Fresh Direct deliveries won’t go missing next? “If we are permitting deliveries in the building, we should be responsible for making sure people get what is delivered to them,” says Daniel Wollman, CEO of Gumley Haft Real Estate Management.

What’s a board to do? The board could write a letter to all shareholders, reminding everyone that newspapers are not collective property and should be left alone. It could also install hallway cameras as a deterrent and to collect evidence. Shareholders could write a letter to the board and managing agent, insisting that they take action. The letter writer(s) could ask other affected neighbors to sign the letter, too, as many voices are usually stronger than one.

Perhaps the papers could be left with a doorman or with the superintendent. Or, as a last resort, the crime victim(s) could join the 21st century and switch to online newspaper subscriptions, which would rob the Luddite thief of a paper newspaper to steal. Case closed.