Grandview police investigate theft from house for sale

GRANDVIEW, Missouri – Thieves stole video game consoles from a Grandview home Tuesday afternoon, and real estate agents and home sellers are on alert.

Signs outside the house in Grandview, just east of Highway 71, announce “Open House Daily.” Three viewings were scheduled for Tuesday, then a last-minute booking that was promptly canceled.

Two boys, 18 and 19, live there with their family. They love playing the video game NBA 2K on two Xbox next-gen consoles that they bought just two weeks ago.

“We bought them together as a graduation gift because we are graduating at the same time,” Eli Boyd said.

But when they returned home after being asked to vacate the house for the screenings, they had disappeared.

“We go in there and they’re not there and we wonder, what happened?” Mechi Boyd said.

“We started searching all the doors in the house and thought someone had definitely stolen it,” Eli said.

The video game consoles did not disappear during the screenings, but only later Tuesday afternoon, according to cameras outside the house that recorded the theft.

The video shows two women appearing in front of the house in a dark Mercedes, talking on the phone and then disappearing again after just a few minutes, each with an Xbox in her hand.

Grandview police have not yet said they are looking for the women, so FOX4 cannot show their faces.

“We worked hard for this. It’s like two weeks of labor went by in a few minutes,” Mekhi said.

The family noticed something else on the video that happened during the house sale.

“There are people who come alone, which I know is not protocol, so that’s a little concerning,” said her mother, Shannon Stoops.

We spoke to a real estate agent who was not involved in the sale or potential purchase of the home. He told FOX4 that real estate agents should never give the access code to someone interested in buying a home.

“A buyer should never be in a home without being accompanied by their agent for safety reasons, insurance reasons and, frankly, ethical reasons,” said Jocelyn Rivard.

Rivard also points out that the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors has more secure lock boxes that can only be opened via Bluetooth through a subscription service on agents’ cell phones.

There are several showings of the home scheduled for tomorrow, but we’re told the seller’s agent now plans to attend all of them in case the buyer’s agents aren’t present. The family is also having interior cameras installed.

As part of our work for you, we contacted the Grandview Police Department to find out if they were investigating any other cases of this nature, but we did not receive a response as of Wednesday.