Hot Property : Beverly Hills Police Put on a Grand Lineup of Allegedly Stolen Goods in Bid for Evidence Against Suspect

Ginger Atherton came to Beverly Hills police headquarters Wednesday for what resembled the high-end garage sale of the century. In a crowded storeroom, she scanned bronze busts of Greek gods, stereo equipment stacked like cafeteria trays, oil paintings lining the walls and Tiffany lamps accustomed to more congenial settings.

Then, in a flash of recognition, the interior designer became a potential witness against a man police say did his own decorating by burglarizing luxury homes and antique shops in the Westside’s most gilded neighborhoods.

“My chairs! That’s my chairs!” Atherton shouted in unmitigated delight, pointing to two French-style, tapestry-covered armchairs that she said were stolen from her Holmby Hills estate last month. To prove her point, she showed detectives color photographs of the chairs when they graced her tastefully appointed living room.

The police officers nodded in satisfaction and took notes. For them, this was more welcome evidence in the large case they are mounting against Wayne Robert Reiner, a 40-year-old accountant who allegedly did not let personal finances stand in the way of expensive tastes.

It took 10 policemen 30 hours last month to pack up and truck all the antique furnishings, refrigerators, microwave ovens, chandeliers, pool pumps, big screen TVs, statues and wine cases they seized from the mansion that Reiner is building on a Bel-Air hillside. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen so much stuff in one location,” said Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Michael Corren.

“To have three or four ovens and three or four microwaves is out of character for most homes,” dryly added Detective Thomas Linehan. In all, 500 items were confiscated, including some police found at Reiner’s Beverly Hills apartment.

Reiner has been charged with two counts each of burglary and receiving stolen property, but police say they expect to add charges soon as a result of more items being identified in Wednesday’s storeroom showing to the public. Authorities say he is suspected of 13 burglaries, most often at homes for sale or under construction or renovation in Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.

The value of the allegedly stolen property is conservatively estimated at $1 million, although police said that could increase sharply after appraisers examine the paintings, a few of which appear to date to the 18th Century.

Free on $50,000 bail, Reiner must stay at his three-story house on Glenroy Place in Bel-Air and his whereabouts are being monitored by an anklet radio transmitter. He did not answer the door when a reporter came by seeking an interview Wednesday.

Planks and other construction material cluttered the driveway, and a chain-link fence was stretched in front. Faced in white stones, the 20,000-square-foot house hugs the hilltop in three wings and has several balconies with great views of the flatlands below. A glass tent-like skylight juts through the roof of its main lobby.

Reiner’s attorney, Gary Amsterdam, was said to be tied up in court on another matter and could not be reached for comment.

Neighbors report that Reiner insists that he is innocent. “He told us he denies all the charges, that he is totally appalled by all this,” said Chris Gabriele, whose family owns a house next door on the leafy Bel-Air cul-de-sac. Although some neighbors had squabbled with Reiner over the size of his new house, Gabriele said no one anticipated that criminal charges would be pressed against a man she described as “very friendly, very courteous.”

“The only thing that was questionable to us was that he drove a pickup with a forklift, and he’s an accountant,” she said.

Another neighbor, 16-year-old Scott Wilson, said he used to visit Reiner and play computer games with him in a room set aside for Nintendo. The accountant’s “prize possession,” Wilson recalled, was a ‘50s-style Coca-Cola machine.

More recently, the Wilson household feuded with Reiner over construction debris left in the street, Scott said. Then they became suspicious about the frequent truck unloadings into the Reiner house about 1 and 2 a.m. “It seemed the guy never slept,” Wilson said.

A real estate broker spotted a man inside a vacant Beverly Hills home on June 22, according to Beverly Hills police spokesman Lt. Frank Salcido. The man gave the agent “some hokey story” about repairs and quickly drove away in a pickup truck, Salcido said. The broker noted the license plate number and alerted police, who arrested Reiner a week later.

The weight of some items led police to conclude that Reiner had accomplices; an antique cast-iron fireplace grate on display Wednesday weighs about 400 pounds. And a man working alone could barely budge the beloved Coca-Cola machine, not to mention the three refrigerators.

Responding to media reports, about 50 people viewed the booty at the police station’s cinder-block storeroom. Preliminary counts showed that five or so visitors identified possessions, such as a brass urn and a marble sink, Salcido said. The merchandise is to be returned to rightful owners.

Sharyl Mendez did not find the plumbing fixtures, locks and gates stolen during renovation of her Bel-Air house six months ago. But she called the police display “incredible, just amazing.”

Interior designer Atherton found her chairs but was disappointed that a valuable tapestry stolen at the same time was not in the show. Still, she was impressed by the overall array. “Someone was very selective,” she said. “They had some very good taste, actually.”