The reason why a homeowner should use a realtor is the realtor is much more savvy in dealing with their clients. They screen their clients, get information and they do not take chances. There are office safety procedures to follow; meet the client(s) at the office, get their personal information, let others in the office meet the client(s). You should always follow your office safety procedures, it will save your life.

We are so sorry about what happened to Eugenia “Jeanne” Calle, if she only had some type of procedure in order to screen would be purchasers, she might not have gotten in this situation.

Again, office safety procedures are there to protect you. If a client does not want to follow the procedures, ie give you his identification, meet you and others in the office, then you should just write them off - so you don’t end up like Ms. Calle, bless her soul.

Atlanta man, 22, charged with murder, met Calle by chance while viewing condos

By MIKE MORRIS, TIM EBERLY

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Their fateful meeting at the high-rise Midtown condo complex — the prominent cancer researcher and the young man described by police as a two-bit criminal — was nothing but chance.

Eugenia “Jeanne” Calle, who had a condo on the Aqua building’s 20th floor, was walking her gray poodle.

Shamal Thompson appeared in court Thursday. He has been charged with murder.

Eugenia Calle

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• Real estate agents know risks of showing homes
Shamal Thompson, 22, fresh off a meal at a nearby Checkers fast-food restaurant, wandered in under the pretense of shopping for condos in the luxury building that boasts private elevators, around-the-clock security and skyline-view homes that cost as much as $2.5 million.

Calle undoubtedly thought she was seizing on an opportunity to sell her condo. But it was Thompson, police say, who was looking for opportunity.

Early Thursday morning, authorities arrested Thompson and charged him with beating Calle to death as she showed him around her penthouse condo. After the killing, and after he went on a spending spree with Calle’s credit cards, Thompson got bolder, returning to the scene of the crime late Wednesday night and trying to con his way back inside her condo, police said.

“He was extremely brazen,” said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the department’s homicide unit. “It’s a little unsettling when people are that bold. I can’t even put it into words.”

Just two weeks into retirement, Calle wanted to sell her condo so she could move in with her fiance.

While crossing through Aqua’s lobby, she overheard Thompson and a real-estate agent chatting about taking a tour of two condos that were for sale, Meadows said.

“She said, ‘Don’t forget about mine. It’s for sale, also,’” Meadows said.

Thompson didn’t. After the tour, a security guard called Calle and said that Thompson was in the lobby.

“Would you like for me to escort him up?” the guard asked Calle, according to Meadows.

“No, it’ll be fine,” Calle responded. “I don’t want him to think that we don’t trust him.’ “

Thompson, who also goes by Jamal Thompson, headed up on his own around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

He spent 20 to 30 minutes in the unit before hitting Calle on the back of the head with an unknown object in the kitchen, Meadows said.

Thompson told a police detective after his arrest that he pushed Calle and that she hit her head on the kitchen counter. He told police he didn’t know she had died, Meadows said.

He dragged her into the pantry, took a diamond ring off her finger, about $68 in cash, her credit cards and her condo electronic swipe card before leaving, Meadows said. She died from blunt force trauma.

Calle’s body was discovered about nine hours later, around 11 p.m. Tuesday, by her fiance, an Atlanta tax attorney whose name has not been released.

It’s not clear whether Thompson seriously intended to buy a home in Aqua or had the money to do so. Meadows said he suspects Thompson wanted to case the condos for valuables and didn’t realize beforehand that the first two were vacant.

Surveillance footage captured Thompson on camera, but he had given a fake name to the real estate agent, Meadows said. He had used his own cell phone to set up the condo viewings, however, and police subpoenaed his phone records.

Detectives had already identified Thompson as the suspect and were actively looking for him when he returned late Wednesday night with two unwitting friends to the Aqua building, located at the corner of West Peachtree and 10th streets.

With Calle’s swipe card in hand, he tried to get back inside, claiming Calle’s condo was his, presumably to steal more property, Meadows said. But security guards became suspicious and turned him away. A security guard took down the license plate of his vehicle and called police.

He was arrested four hours later, at 3 a.m. Thursday, at a friend’s house off Fairburn Road in southwest Atlanta, where a U.S. Marshals Service had tracked him.

Thompson had used her credit cards at numerous stores in the Atlantic Station and Lenox areas, buying clothes, a $400 watch, tennis shoes and other items. He gave Calle’s ring to a woman, and police have since recovered it, Meadows said.

Thompson, who has been arrested previously for burglary, is charged with murder and robbery by force. At his first court appearance Thursday he was ordered held without bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for March 6.

Court and arrest records indicate Thompson has several prior arrests, stretching back to his high school days in Gwinnett County.

Records listed Thompson as a student at Meadowcreek High School when he was arrested in Gwinnett in May 2005 for theft by taking and theft by receiving, in connection with a stolen Toyota Corolla. He pleaded guilty to one count of theft by receiving and was sentenced to five years of probation.

DeKalb County jail records show at least two arrests, one of which resulted in conviction.

In 2006, Thompson was arrested by DeKalb police on burglary charges. He was sentenced last April to 10 years in prison, with six months to serve. He was credited with about two months’ time served and the sentence was reduced to time served, court records show.

A renowned epidemiologist, Calle retired last month from her post as vice president of the epidemiology department at the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society. Her research in epidemiology, which is the study of disease, helped establish the link between cancer and obesity, and cancer and diet.

— Staff writers Aileen Dodd, Ben Smith and Andria Simmons contributed to this report.

Real estate agents know risks of showing homes

By MARCUS K. GARNER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Georgia Association of Realtors offers extensive training for its members on recognizing and avoiding attacks while showing properties, said CEO Bob Hamilton.

“Most of our business is referrals,” Hamilton said. “But when you have a walk-in to your office, you have to ask them questions to make sure you know who they are. A bad guy wouldn’t want to let you get their ID or license tag information.”

Here are some tips from the Real Estate Assault Awareness courses the association offers to its members:

• Always make a photocopy of the person’s drivers license or passport.

• Take down a description of the client’s vehicle and information from their license plate.

• If you go out to show a home, learn the route to the home ahead of time, and share the directions and address with a colleague.

• Don’t pull into the driveway of a vacant home, and park in way that prevents you from being blocked in.

• Always let a client enter a home first, and walk ahead of you as you’re showing the home.

• Don’t wear flashy jewelry when showing a property.

• Never carry large amounts of cash.

• Always stay in touch with your office; if visiting multiple homes with one client, alert your office when you leave one address and arrive at another.

• For homeowners with a real estate sign in your yard, always have a would-be home buyer contact the agent or broker rather than letting them in to see your home. “It’s OK to tell them, ‘It’s not convenient to show the home at this time,’” Hamilton said.