Charges have been filed against a Vancouver real estate agent accused of burglarizing a home that he was supposed to be showing to an interested client. The alleged crime was caught on camera.
Cory M. Escott, 59, faces residential burglary and third-degree theft charges in the Feb. 28 incident at a house in the Maplecrest neighborhood. He has been summoned to appear on the charges April 25 in Clark County Superior Court.
The alleged burglary occurred in the 17000 block of Northeast 27th Way. The homeowners reported that a real estate agent had stolen prescription medication from their home.
The victims, Travis and Allyson Clarke, told sheriff’s deputies that while they were at work, Escott entered the house using his access device and stole 12 oxycodone tablets. Clarke showed deputies an empty bottle that had been on the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet. Allyson Clarke said she was prescribed the medication for a medical procedure and had only used a few days’ worth, the affidavit states.
Travis Clarke pointed out the couple’s “nanny cam” on top of the upper kitchen cabinets and told deputies the whole thing was caught on camera. In the video, Escott appears to be wearing latex gloves. He’s seen entering the kitchen and begins looking through the cabinets. He then puts on his glasses to view the contents of the pill bottles he finds, court records said.
Escott stops, looks around and then leaves the camera’s view. He returns carrying a chair that he uses to climb higher into the cabinet. The video also apparently captures the sound of pills being poured out of a plastic bottle. Escott then steps down off the chair, returns it to its place and leaves, the affidavit states.
Escott even left his business card on the counter, according to court documents, which is standard practice for real estate agents when viewing a house.
Deputies later interviewed Escott and he said he was contacted the evening before by an interested homebuyer. But when asked for the potential buyer’s name, Escott said he wasn’t sure and said the buyer was from Minnesota. He also didn’t have any sort of documentation or correspondence with the buyer, according to the affidavit.
Escott told deputies that after receiving permission to show the home, he arrived about 1 p.m. Ten to 15 minutes passed, and the buyer still hadn’t shown up, so he went inside to turn on the lights. He was walking down the hallway to the kitchen, he said, when he heard a “scratching” noise and thought it could be mice, court documents state.
Escott wanted to locate where the noise was coming from, he said, because he didn’t want the potential homebuyer to come across rodents. He went to the kitchen and looked into the cabinets to see if that’s where the noise was coming from. Escott said he didn’t remove any medication, the affidavit said.
He told deputies he was holding the house key and dropped it in the cabinet, so he had to push the contents to the side to find it. Escott also said that he used a chair to better see into the cabinet. When he located the key, he left and was unable to ever get in touch with the potential buyer, court records said.
During the interview, Escott told deputies that he knew the in-home camera was there and said he wasn’t wearing latex gloves; he said he wore knit gloves because he was cold, according to court documents.
