The hot item on Charlotte’s black market? Your fridge, or washer and dryer, CMPD says.
When most people think of the black market, they imagine guns, drugs, and possibly someone’s kidney. Washing machines and stoves aren’t typically at the forefront of anyone’s mind.
In Charlotte, there is a booming black market for stolen appliances, says Maj. Brian Foley with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
Under the cover of night, nondescript — often stolen — box trucks and moving trucks roam Charlotte’s streets, Foley said Wednesday during a CMPD news conference. Inside, police say there are often stolen washers and dryers, stoves, refrigerators, and other appliances. Thieves are known to target apartment complexes throughout the city.
At one University City complex, 18 stoves were stolen, he said.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Foley said. “That’s a general number of how many we see stolen in each of these kinds of thefts.”
Thieves sell the appliances to consumers below retail value, or to a distributor for another property.
Foley referred to the thefts as a “hidden cost” of Charlotte’s population growth and ongoing construction.
“Whether you notice or not, when you go to buy a property or you go to rent a property frequently they come with appliances,” Foley said. “Appliances are expensive and believe me, thieves know this. There is … a pretty extensive black market in the resale of these items.”
Black market appliances
Foley said these items can be found on Ebay and many other websites.
A search of Facebook Marketplace listings in Charlotte by The Charlotte Observer revealed several washer and dryer sets for under $300, refrigerators for as low as $150, and stoves for $75. Foley said seeing items such as these at a substantial discount is an indication the items are stolen.
“It affects everybody,” Foley said. “It drives the cost of the rent up, it drives the cost of the appliances up ... you are going to feel it whether you like it or not. Cheaper is not always better.”
While other types of crime are on a downward trend in the city, thefts are increasing, officials said during Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police’s news conference on crime statistics from the third quarter of 2022.
Burglaries in Charlotte are up more than 22% from last year, according to the third quarter statistics. Residential burglaries increased over 8% and commercial increased 41%.
Those stealing these appliances don’t just stay inside Mecklenburg County. They visit neighboring areas and steal from them as well, Foley said.
Police and property managers last month worked together and used GPS to track some stolen appliances to a storage facility in the North Division, Foley said. The division includes neighborhoods around Northlake Mall, the Clark’s Creek area, and northwest Charlotte, along Beatties Ford Road.
Authorities later arrested a 21-year-old man, Colby Brown, on more than 100 charges related to the stolen property, CMPD records show. As of Wednesday, he was in jail, held on a $200,000 bond.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 1:52 PM.
