Minnetonka Realtor arrested in theft of pain meds

A Minnetonka broker is suspected of stealing drugs from homes he claimed to be showing.

By LIBBY A. NELSON, Star Tribune

Last update: July 17, 2008 - 11:37 PM

Freddy Akradi came home at lunch Tuesday to clean before what he thought would be the first showing of his Minnetonka home.

Instead, he found his Siberian husky locked in the garage and pain medication missing from his kitchen cabinet.

"I knew right away somebody had been in my house," said Akradi, 26.

Police say the culprit was Minnetonka real estate broker Charles Lindley, 64, arrested that day at another home showing. He's accused of stealing pain medication from Akradi's home and other houses he had claimed to be showing to clients.

Lindley was in the Hennepin County jail Thursday night pending charges. Police said they can link him to a similar theft in June and possibly to dozens of other cases.

"My guess is it's going to be lots of houses," said Minnetonka detective Sgt. Dave Riegert, who's supervising the investigation.

When Lindley was arrested, he had "literally hundreds of listings" for other homes with him, Riegert said.

"People that are selling their houses are going back and looking in their medicine cabinets," he said. "They're finding that their hydrocodone [a narcotic pain reliever] is gone and they didn't know about it."

Lindley, who operates a brokerage agency with his wife, used a real estate database to search new listings, Riegert said. He would set up a time to show a house, but then would arrive without clients.

His wife is not under investigation, police said.

After Akradi's real estate agent called police, four officers were waiting at a showing Lindley had scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Riegert said.

According to police documents, Lindley was in the house police staked out for less than five minutes, going straight to the kitchen and pulling bottles of pills from the cupboard.

Police found a sock containing 85 pills in his car, according to the report.

When arrested, Lindley told police that he had become addicted to prescription drugs during treatment for restless-leg syndrome 10 years ago, according to the report. He said he has been prescribed pain medication but was supplementing it with the thefts.

Such cases rare

Real estate agents who steal from clients are rare, but such cases do occur, said Bill Walsh, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which licenses real estate agents and brokers.

Lindley was licensed as a broker in 1985, according to Department of Commerce records. On Wednesday, he agreed to a revocation of his license, Walsh said.

Akradi's real estate agent, Wendy Villella, said the case creates even more problems for real estate agents in a tough market and taints an honest profession.

"The Realtors out there are sick and tired of having a bad name, and it's very hard to sell homes when somebody's out there stealing from your sellers," Villella said. "It's a very difficult market out there, and the Realtors that are surviving are going above and beyond."

It's difficult to safeguard against dishonest brokers, who, unlike real estate agents, might not have any contact with homeowners, Walsh said.

Riegert advised people selling their homes to lock up their valuables, including prescription drugs, just in case. "You don't know if the Realtor's going to get distracted, or if there's going to be a bunch of people there," he said.

Akradi said he's just glad his dog -- locked in a hot garage on a 90-degree day -- is safe.

"I could care less about the prescription," he said. "I really was worried that my poor dog was in the garage. God knows how long he was in there for."

And though he blames the economy, not the break-in, he has also decided to wait a little longer to try to sell his house.

Libby A. Nelson • 612-673-4758

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