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Realtors really do go above and beyond.
Keller Williams agent Albie Vas
That was the case with Albie Vas, an agent with Keller Williams Las Vegas, whose lucky timing Tuesday afternoon had him in the right place to intervene in an active burglary at one of his Nevada listings this week.
Vas told Inman a separate client on one of his luxury listings near Las Vegas had left the lights on inside the home before an earlier showing, saving what he estimated to be six minutes as he went to another listing. That gave him enough time to stop by a vacant home in Spring Valley — a town roughly two miles west of the Las Vegas strip —around 11 a.m. Tuesday, in order to fill up his client’s pool.
While in the backyard, Vas said he noticed something amiss with two of the home’s three back doors.
“I turned it off, pulled the hose out and I saw on the backdoor the weather stripping was on the floor,” Vas said. “I was like, ‘That’s weird.’”
He checked the doors and they were both still locked and secured, though they looked like they’d been tampered with near the deadbolt.
When he saw the third door had also been damaged, Vas said he called the Las Vegas police department’s non-emergency number and left to get something to eat while waiting for a response, which he said took an hour.
Las Vegas police responded to an active burglary of a vacant listing in September 2024. Photo by Albie Vas
“I drive back and as I’m getting there — I’m driving slowly — I see this guy’s truck parked backwards in our driveway,” Vas said. “This guy is sitting there trying to break in through the garage. I called 911. I said, ‘Hey this guy is actively breaking into my listing.’”
The pickup truck already had a refrigerator in the back of it when Vas called the police. The suspect was inside moving the refrigerator from the listing, searching for a door big enough to slip it out of when the police arrived.
“The guy jets to the backyard, hops the fence,” Vas recalled. “An officer gets on the roof to get a better vantage point. The K9 had him in less than one minute. He was hiding in the shed of our yard.”
By then, several large appliances inside the home had been moved. The suspect had dragged the fridge through the house, removed door handles and hinges and squeezed the fridge all the way into the front yard.
Before police arrived, Vas alerted his client, who lives in Fiji.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got bad news. Your house is actively getting robbed,’” Vas said. “The stove was moved. The dryer was moved. The fridge was outside in the front yard.”
The gas company had to come by before the police could inspect the home to make sure the stove wasn’t actively leaking gas after being tampered with, Vas said.
Police arrested the suspect and discovered the truck he was driving was stolen about two weeks earlier. Vas was still at the listing when the truck’s owner showed up to retrieve his vehicle.
“He was about 65-70 years old. It didn’t look like he had a lot of means,” Vas said. “When he saw his truck he started to cry and said he didn’t think he’d ever have it back. He said sometimes he’s homeless and that’s where he sleeps.”
Vas called the reuniting a silver lining in the otherwise bizarre situation. As for his client, she increased his commission as a result of his heroics.
“She said she’s going to give me an extra 0.5 percent,” Vas said. “I said it’s my job. What would I do? I would have to leave that job unattended? No! I’m here to sell this house.”
