Architecture Thief in Mid-City Gets Away with a Slap on the Wrist

I'm sure we have all heard the news reports and tales of unique Architectural pieces getting "liberated" from damaged houses throughout the city. Well, it turns out that close friends of mine that own a flooded Mid-City house have been frequent victims of this crime. And even though the criminal was caught red handed, he was back on the street within a few hours and only a half block from where the crime was committed. Since this guilty party is a local business man I can think of no better justice than to announce his name so that others can avoid him. Please read my friends' account of the events below:

I want to pass on information about an incident that happened yesterday. In short, Long Hardwood Floor Restoration, LLC uses stolen wood to restore customers' floors.

** As most of you know, xxx & xxx are having the house on Telemachus demolished and are re-building on the same lot. The plans are pretty much in place; we are just waiting for the house to be knocked (waiting since October)

Over the past several weeks, individuals have been stealing items from our home such as doors, all of our windows, the air-condition unit, etc. It has been upsetting for us - even though we are not using these items in the new house, these things are still OUR property and the fact that people are just helping themselves to our things really chaps our rears.

Anyhoo - yesterday, we got a call from a concerned neighbor stating that someone was in our house removing the window frames. xxx & xxx rushed over to the house to find some guy working away in our house, taking what he wanted. After recovering from the blood vessels popping in our heads, we called the police, they arrived QUICKLY, arrested him and took him to the police station. Happy ending? No. ----A few hours later, we saw him walk in Finn McCool's for a drink with his friends. Essentially, he was just slapped on the hand by the police (he was only charged with trespassing) and released.

We are furious and want to pass on this information about this guy to warn our friends that this business uses wood stolen from people's homes. I have said this dozens of times to people - if they want things from our house like wood, windows, etc., all they have to do is ask us for these things. We will give them these things. We would rather see these pieces used elsewhere then be demolished. We just want to be ASKED!

So, here is the information about the guy who stole wood out of our home without our permission:

Steven Long

Long Hardwood Floor Restoration, LLC

504.621.1165

He is a thief and I encourage you to not give him your business. He uses stolen wood to restore wood floors.

Thank you.

xxx & xxx (NAMES REMOVED)