While crime and homelessness in Denver spirals out of control, newly-elected District Attorney Beth McCann has decided to throw her law enforcement resources against…AirBnB landlords. Two Denver real estate investors, a husband and wife team, were each charged with “attempting to influence a public servant,” a felony, for their dangerous AirBnB rental units.
It was a real Perry Mason moment for the McCann team. Excise and licensing investigators bravely interviewed neighbors of the couple – both near their home in Stapleton and their AirBnBs in other parts of town. Photographs in hand, some of Denver’s finest approached neighbors asking, “do you know who these people are?” (For the record, we wouldn’t be able to identify our neighbors in a lineup.)
Amazingly, people in the Stapleton neighborhood recognized them as neighbors, but people living near the rentals were not able to ID them. McCann had them right where she wanted them.
But there was more. The arresting document explained how “technicians” searched the internet and found a YouTube video of the couple proclaiming their love for their Stapleton neighborhood.
These heroes even looked through windows and into the yards for evidence of children living there (the perps had young kids). Amazingly, the Stapleton house had kids toys visible, but none of that was visible at the short-term rentals.
Sensing something was amiss, the AirBnB cops requested the couple fill out a notarized form, part of which attested that the rentals were their primary residences. Once they signed that – McCann had the process crime to go after.
A spokesperson from McCann’s office said that other AirBnB criminals will be frogmarched soon. Meanwhile, this couple has a date with a Denver judge on June 21. For the crime of doing what they wanted with property they owned. Good God.