Boarding Home Abductions on the Rise

After a daylong search, Los Angeles police on Wednesday found four of six impoverished residents of boarding homes who were allegedly abducted by agents of a competing facility--a ruthless tactic that authorities say is becoming increasingly common.

The four were discovered unharmed at a boarding home less than a mile from where they were spirited away Tuesday in two luxury cars. As police pressed their search for the missing victims--described as having physical or mental impairments--investigators were holding two people Wednesday evening for questioning.

Police say the brazen kidnappings represent an ominous escalation in the intense competition for boarding home patients, who typically surrender a portion of their government assistance checks to the facility owners.

“It’s happened a number of times,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Jimmy Grayson said of the so-called pirating of boarding home clients, “but apparently this is the first time it’s been reported. . . . It’s a real unique scam.”

The abductions on Tuesday occurred in broad daylight at two boarding homes. According to police and witnesses, four kidnappers first struck at Cohen Room and Board at 1401 W. 22nd St., a white clapboard house on a quiet residential area about half a mile from the USC campus.

There, they confronted the 40-year-old manager of the home.

“When I go to the door,” the manager said Wednesday, “they asked if the owner was here. I said no. They told me to have a seat.” With that, the manager said, he was struck. One of the assailants, he said, had a gun partially hidden by his clothing.

The men searched the house room by room, leaving with a television and three residents: James Thurston and David Walker, both in their late 60s, and Larry Freeman, who is about 50. The manager said Walker is a diabetic and has high blood pressure; Freeman, the manager said, suffered a stroke and is partially paralyzed.

“They’re elderly men,” said the manager, who requested anonymity. “Mr. Freeman . . . he can’t run. He can’t fight. Mr. Walker, he can’t really fight, either. They’re not totally incapacitated, but they’re slow-moving.”

Another employee of the Cohen home said he believed one of the assailants was a man who once tried to persuade him to work as a “recruiter” for a rival home. Recruiters, he said, range across the city persuading homeless people and others to move into boarding homes in exchange for a portion of their government checks.

“This guy needed [residents],” said the Cohen recruiter, who did not want to be identified. “They’ve been snatching people off the streets.”

About 45 minutes after the first boarding home invasion, police said, the same robbers hit again, forcing their way into a home on Crenshaw Boulevard, accosting an employee and stealing three more residents--two men about 60 years old and an elderly woman--along with their medication and what police described as “personal papers.”

Outside the Crenshaw home Wednesday, Oliver Sampson, who described himself as a spokesman for the owners of the well-kept, two-story home, said: “It’s people that are trying to get into the business. What they’re doing is kidnapping and hijacking patients from other homes.

“They’re being kept against their will.”

Police described the homes targeted in the invasions Tuesday as “unlicensed board and care” homes. But employees of the homes said they are licensed to provide shelter and food, and that that is all they provide. A home that provides health care must meet stricter standards.

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At the West 36th Street home where four of the six victims were discovered Wednesday, police and social workers escorted a dozen residents out of the facility, including one elderly man with bare feet who moaned as he walked out. “You’ll be all right,” a police officer reassured him.

Investigators and the operators of the boarding homes said an increasing number of homeless people in Los Angeles has triggered a rise in the number of unscrupulous operators of homes for the homeless--and heightened the competition.

Some recruiters have turned to other homes to find their business, literally snatching away residents as they take strolls through their neighborhoods. Like those taken in the most recent case, many of the victims are mentally or physically impaired and receive benefits from the state or federal government. The boarding home operators charge hundreds of dollars a month in exchange for a bed and three meals a day.

“It’s gotten really bad this year; there’s so many homeless that a lot of people are getting into the business,” said Gloria Cohen, who owns three boarding homes for homeless, one of which was invaded Tuesday. “I’ve lost about 20 of my people in a period of about six months.

“This time . . . they came right into the house. That’s never happened before,” she said. “One of the people they took . . . he’ll be very upset. He might even try to fight them. He likes it here.

“I know one of the guys who took them,” Cohen added. “In fact, he was bragging downtown that he has eight of my people.”

Cohen said she charges her residents $500 a month, or in some cases $450, for a room and food. “We get them off the skid row area,” she said. “I go around town, talk to them, interview them. They come see my house. If they like it, they stay. If they don’t, they go.

“Some of my residents have been here for 10 years,” she said. “Some have family, but their families have put them out for whatever reason. We become their family.”

Sampson, the spokesman for the owner of the other facility invaded Tuesday, said the homes provide an important service and cheap alternative to life on streets. He said the trauma of Tuesday’s events has persuaded the owner to find other work.