Vacationing subscribers of the Houston Chronicle get ripped off

(8/27/07 - KTRK/TOMBALL, TX) (KTRK) -- When you go on vacation, many of you probably call your newspaper to put a hold on your subscription, but a couple of local women are accused of using that information to steal from Houston Chronicle customers.

Police say they tracked the women down through stolen credit cards. Even before their detective word was complete, police had a pretty good idea who had committed the crime and just had to follow the paper trail.

Lloyd Andrew won't be renewing his newspaper subscription anytime soon. He's upset after burglars broke into his home and stole thousands of dollars worth of items.

"The grandmother's jewelry, things like that are very precious to the family," he said.

It happened this past week, the same week three other homes in Tomball were also robbed. The burglaries all happened at homes where the occupants were out of town and all with one other thing in common.

"They had a paper delivery and all of them had cancelled delivery of the paper," said Captain Rickey Doerre of the Tomball Police Department.

With that information, police were able to track down Amanda Searfoss. Police say the 27 year old, who was on probation for drug possession and with a suspended license, worked for a subcontractor for the chronicle delivering newspapers. Using a list provided by her company, police say, she and a roommate, Dustine Swepston, were able to target specific homes and rob them.

"They would actually know that the homeowner was not going to be there," Captain Doerre said.

In a written statement, a Chronicle spokesperson says, the newspaper was extremely dismayed by the burglaries:

"The independent distributers and the carriers they contract with have delivered millions of Chronicles to homes in the Houston market without a burglary incident."

"They tell these basic convicted criminals, who don't have a driving record to drive through the neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning, a list of everybody out of town, it's just crazy," Andrew said.

We did make several attempts to reach the subcontractor but our phone calls have not been returned.

as for the suspects, both women, remain in custody at the Harris County Jail. Police did manage to recover most of the stolen property.

You can read more about this story in our Houston Community Newspaper partner the Tomball Potpourri.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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