"Gang members and criminals are using the homes as stash houses for their weapons and drugs."

Another problem brought to us by our friends at the local subprime mortgage company.... Here's the thing, tho; I'm not so sure I'd stash my shit in an abandoned house, especially my dope. Too many chances that I'd lose it, whether from a ripoff, a demolition, or new owners taking possession of the property and making it impossible for me to recover my "investment." Of course, I'm thinking logically here, something most dope fiends - present self years ago included - and gangsta thugs rarely do....

Foreclosed homes used to stash guns, drugs Sunday, April 27, 2008 John Caniglia Plain Dealer Reporter The leaders of a robbery team that terrorized Tremont businesses last fall made sure they never lacked access to firepower. They simply stashed a shotgun in the foundation of an abandoned home several miles away, near East 105th Street and St. Clair Avenue. The gun was there if anyone in the crew needed it. "It was the community gun,' " said Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho. "They said it was there for when someone had to hit a lick,' or commit a robbery." As workers board up abandoned properties across the county, police, neighborhood activists and advocates for the homeless are seeing another ugly trend emerge in the foreclosure crisis: Gang members and criminals are using the homes as stash houses for their weapons and drugs. For gang members and street criminals, pitching a weapon or drugs in boarded-up houses is an easy way to avoid being caught with them. For the neighborhood, it's a hazard. The danger comes when neighborhood children use the houses as playgrounds or squatters make dangerous discoveries. On April 11, a 14-year-old Cleveland boy told police he found a .22-caliber revolver and a .22-caliber rifle behind an abandoned home. He took the weapons home, only to have his 10-year-old brother find the revolver and shoot his 11-year-old sister in the head, killing her. Police are skeptical of the teen's story that he found the gun. But it underscores how well known the homes are for criminal enterprises. Authorities said it's impossible to get definitive numbers on how common the problem is, but they say the mere fact it's happening is worrisome. And it's not just in Cleveland. In February, Pittsburgh police told reporters they seized 30 guns and ammunition from abandoned homes in one gang-ridden neighborhood. In March, police in Trenton, N.J., recovered weapons during a search of boarded-up houses. "We have guys who will hide weapons that they used in crimes in abandoned homes; it happens," said John Hageman, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Philadelphia. Other communities in Ohio see the same thing. In Summit County, drug detectives have found methamphetamine labs and stashes of cash. "These homes are a breeding ground for crime," said Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera. In recent years, the department has investigated slayings and a rape at abandoned homes. Eight days before the shooting of the 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, Stacho said, a youth tried to stash a .22-caliber gun at an abandoned home in the 700 block of Lakeview Avenue. Police caught the youth and seized the gun. "These are eyesores and places that people can use to conceal items that they strip from houses, or their drugs or their guns," said Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. "No one checks on the houses, and they're lost in a bureaucratic shell game of who has to take care of them." In 2004, Davis' agency surveyed 15 abandoned buildings in Cleveland. He found 10 that had some form of criminal activity in them. Judy Martin, founder of Survivors/Victims of Tragedy in Cleveland, said gang members stashing weapons or drugs in the homes can soon become a major problem. "Of course we've heard about this," she said. "People are simply taking advantage of what's there. Anyone can get into a vacant home, no matter how well it is boarded up." Bob Deskins' workers see the problem from a different angle: from a wrecking crane. Deskins runs Lightning Demolition and Excavation, one of the companies Cleveland hires to tear down abandoned homes. His crews have found crack cocaine in homes and other drug tools. They grab a 55-gallon barrel and burn what they find. "You want to make sure the druggies can't come back," Deskins said. Neighborhood activists fear the drug peddlers and the problems they bring will leave only when a solution arrives for the foreclosure problem. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jcaniglia@plaind.com, 216-999-4097