Stealing a house should, in theory, be difficult. Houses are large. They are attached to the ground. Most of them cannot be tucked inside a jacket while a security guard is looking the other way.

But San Francisco officials say two people tried something considerably simpler: paperwork.

City Attorney David Chiu has filed a civil lawsuit against Brandon Aadee and Diana Peng, alleging the pair tried to take ownership of a multimillion-dollar home in San Francisco’s wealthy Sea Cliff neighborhood using a series of forged or altered deeds. Over roughly 13 months, the city says ownership of the property was transferred eight times, bouncing back and forth between Aadee and Peng like the world’s most expensive game of hot potato.

The home at 250 32nd Ave. is estimated to be worth about $4.4 million. Wei Wang and her husband owned it and purchased it in 2013. Wang later moved to China, and more than $320,000 in property taxes eventually went unpaid.

According to the lawsuit, in July 2025 Aadee filed a deed to transfer the property from Wang back to himself. Then over the next 13 months, the city says Aadee and Peng repeatedly transferred the house back and forth.

And to make things even more bizarre, at least five of the eight deeds contained forged notary signatures, fake stamps and information that had been changed after the documents were notarized, according to Chiu’s office. Some of the paperwork even indicated that the transfers were related to divorce.

The city said there was one small problem with that. Investigators found no record that Aadee and Peng were ever married, which does make the divorce part of the story a little ambitious.

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Several notaries of the documents told investigators that they did not approve the deeds as they were ultimately filed. In other cases, the city says real notarizations were later changed to make the paperwork say something different.

Filing a deed does not necessarily mean someone at City Hall has gone line by line and confirmed that everything on it is true. At times documents can enter the official record before anyone realizes there’s anything wrong with it.

Which leads to the question, if someone files paperwork saying your house belongs to them, how long does it take before somebody stops and says, “Hang on, whose house is this?”

The property had already become a source of frustration for neighbors. The San Francisco Standard reported that police were sent to the address more than 30 times over roughly two years amid complaints about suspicious activity. Aadee also allegedly contacted a real estate agent about selling the home.

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Chiu’s office says that was ultimately the goal: gain control of the property and sell it for millions before the alleged scheme fell apart.

“Defendants are effectively trying to steal a house and sell it to make millions in profit,” Chiu said when announcing the lawsuit.

The city has asked the judge to cancel the disputed deeds, stop Aadee and Peng from claiming the property based on them, and impose civil penalties. To date, no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the alleged scheme. San Francisco has accused the pair of trying to steal the house, but those claims still have to be proven.

This says alot about the American Dream. We’re taught if we work hard that one day we too might be home owners, but apparently, in 2026, a $4.4 million house can become the center of an ownership fight because somebody essentially said, “Actually, this is mine now.”

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal on Sep 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.