Open House Bandits Caught

Realtors and other open house organizers can breathe slightly easier: The police have arrested two suspects in the rash of open house robberies on the Upper East and West Sides. Upper East Side residents Jennifer Jones, 39, and Jessica Joyner, 33, were arrested and charged with petty larceny, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The pair would head to open houses posing as interested buyers and one would distract the real estate agent holding the open house while the other would steal jewelry, purses, clothes, champagne - even a Tiffany clock.

According to the Daily News, Joyner apparently lives on East 94th Street and has a $645,000 home in the Hamptons, while Jones lives on East 75th Street in a rent-stabilized apartment. The Post called Jones' mother Laura Rothman:

"I'm going to need a tranquilizer!" a sobbing Laura Rothman said.

"This is impossible. I can't believe my daughter would do this."...

..."The arrest was yesterday [Saturday]. Why wouldn't she [Jones] have called me?" said Rothman, a Trenton, NJ, resident. "You get one phone call in jail, right?

The anguished mom did not believe such a crime could be pulled off.

"I just don't know how someone could even do this," Rothman said. "I mean there are Realtors, other people there in the apartment. Isn't there supervision?"

Prudential Douglas Elliman vice president Douglas Heddings first wrote about the robberies on his website, True Gotham. When surveillance tapes of the pair were released, it was thought that the brunette in the video was "a man in drag."

The Daily News describes the pair ("an upscale version of Thelma and Louise") thusly: "Joyner, a blond with a horsy smile, and Jones, a sexy brunette, allegedly stole with discriminating tastes, police said." Still, it's unclear if they wore wigs during the heists. Heddings emphasizes that people should lock up their belongings during open houses and offers these safety tips for sellers.