A discerning eye saved a group of Philadelphia real estate investors from a near tragedy when touring a property. One more step down a booby-trapped stairway inside the home could have left a member of their team critically injured.
Ekrem Uysaler told the media that he and his investor team were looking at a property on Jan. 2 in South Philadelphia when one member of the team spotted a small trip wire at the first stair of the stairway, which was covered with glass shards. The men stopped their head construction manager from proceeding.
They then began recording video as they grabbed a pole and pulled the string. A knife duct-taped to an aluminum crutch came swinging down, right where an unsuspecting person’s head would be.
“It could’ve done a lot of damage, but luckily, we saw it before anybody got hurt,” Uysaler told the NBC-10 local news affiliate. None of the investors were hurt.
Uysaler says it’s not uncommon for the investor team to find dangerous things when touring homes for sale, like drug stashes or abandoned drugs. But a booby-trapped staircase was new to them, he said.
The incident is a reminder to be careful when touring homes for sale. Access safety resources and tip sheets from NAR.
Source: “Booby-Trapped Stairway Shocks Real Estate Investors in Southwest Philadelphia,” NBC-10 (Feb. 14, 2019) and “Real Estate Investor Finds Booby-Trapped Staircase,” Cox Media Group (Feb. 17, 2019)
