Closed Detroit furniture store targeted by thieves

A brand new chair stolen from what used to be Park Furniture sits abandoned in the back parking lot likely too heavy to toss over a barbed wire fence.

Detroit Police spent Thursday morning guarding the building after a series of break-ins from a multitude of people who allegedly lost money when the store shut down.

"She spent, I think it was $150, $200 on a dining room table.  They never delivered it to our house," one man said.

He claimed a few months ago his mother was ripped off, but Wednesday he got an interesting call.

"Said, 'Do you need some furniture?'  I said, 'Yeah, I need some furniture.  How much?'  And he said, 'Half off, brand new couches, beds, mattresses.  Get up here.'  I said, 'I'm on the way.'"

"They found out the store's empty, and I heard there's no alarm and stuff in there," said Sunny Chong, who owns a nearby furniture store.

"I'm mad.  I want my table or either I want my money.  That's all," said Kim Hollis, who claims she lost her down payment at Park Furniture.

Park Furniture was owned by Rick Berman.  Fox 2 did some digging and before that the store was Furniture Express owned by Rick's brother Bob Berman, who now runs a furniture store in Livonia.

No one answered the door at Rick Berman's home in West Bloomfield.  My calls to his house weren't returned either.

We went to another Berman owned furniture store in Farmington Hills where the owner claimed not to know anything about his brother's affairs.

"I'm a new business here and I was hoping you were going to do a good story on me, not ask me questions about somebody," he said.

After the interview, Fox 2 was contacted by another member of the Berman family who said Rick Berman went to California seeking treatment for his wife, who is battling cancer.  He said the store was foreclosed by Comerica Bank, but customers who paid in full should contact Chase Bank, which now owns the furniture.

Police told me the bank plans to come back and board up all of the windows to keep people out.