Daily News Steals the Empire State Building

by Jordan Yerman | December 3, 2008 at 07:18 am

769 views | 22 Recommendations | 12 comments

It only took an hour and a half to steal the Empire State Building.

By filing fake paperwork that nobody bothered to verify, the Daily News shed some light on a rather alarming loophole in New York's real-estate title transfer process.

Had I known real estate was so easy to acquire, I'd have never left Brooklyn. Indeed, I'd now own it, and it'd be called Joordyn.

The News swiped the 102-story Art Deco skyscraper by drawing up a batch of bogus documents, making a fake notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property.

Some of the information was laughable: Original "King Kong" star Fay Wray is listed as a witness and the notary shared a name with bank robber Willie Sutton.

The massive ripoff illustrates a gaping loophole in the city's system for recording deeds, mortgages and other transactions.

The fraud potential lies not in actually swiping a building, but in using a fake deed to acquire a big ol' mortgage and then skip town.

They didn't cover this in my licensing classes.

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alohadave

at 15:59 on December 3rd, 2008

The Empire State Building from the corner of 34th and Broadway.

alohadave has contributed a photo to this story.

rcvndnhvl1

at 16:30 on December 3rd, 2008

view on the Manhattan skyline and Empire State building. Shot from the New Contemporary Art Museum roof terrace.

rcvndnhvl1 has contributed a photo to this story.

svtex

at 19:45 on December 3rd, 2008

View of the Empire State Building from Herald Square.

svtex has contributed a photo to this story.

Paschen

at 21:29 on December 3rd, 2008

Well, You may want to check out Toronto there loop holes and still be able to get your Joordyn... :)

Ioannis P. Skaltsas

at 23:55 on December 3rd, 2008

View of the Empire State Building and the moon from Chelsea ;-)

fabulous74

at 00:29 on December 4th, 2008

Empire State Building from the Brooklin Bridge.

fabulous74 has contributed a photo to this story.

elpimiento3333

at 00:56 on December 4th, 2008

To tell the truth, I can´t remember, where I was standing, when I took the photo. It was my first trip to New York, and we walked around the whole day...and there is a lot to walk in New York ;-)

elpimiento3333 has contributed a photo to this story.

AGG

at 07:30 on December 4th, 2008

Amazing view from an amazing building.

AGG has contributed a photo to this story.

littledodd

at 10:09 on December 4th, 2008

On a trip to NY and thought I might have a romantic moment of my own up there at the top of the Empire State, but gatecrashed theirs instead as it would make a great, unique pic...no breaking news I'm afraid, just a traveller's holiday souvenir. Glad you like it!

littledodd has contributed a photo to this story.

penton42

at 10:50 on December 5th, 2008

Empire State Building at dusk, with fire escape in foreground.

penton42 has contributed a photo to this story.

benbw

at 14:21 on December 5th, 2008

©Ben Walmsley

benbw has contributed a photo to this story.

tomman

at 11:21 on December 8th, 2008

This pic was taken in late September 2008 from the open-top tour bus that leaves from Times Square. This particular ride was the Downtown Manhattan ride and was well worth it (as long as you get a good tour guide).

tomman has contributed a photo to this story.