Imagine a stranger stealing your home without you even knowing it.

It is called deed fraud — also known as home title theft.

69 News is diving into the issue with a special, two-part series.

“A Reading property that was distressed and needed a lot of work and no one had bought it at tax claim sale. This was several years ago before property values seemed to have shot up,” said Fred Sheeler, Berks County Recorder of Deeds.

According to Sheeler, the blighted property on South 7th Street was sold to a limited liability corporation in June of 2024, or at least that is how it appeared.

“So, it had a valid notary on it. We didn’t know any difference,” said Sheeler.

There was even what looked like the signature of the grantor.

“A man took it upon himself to not bother to pay for it at tax claim sale. He faked a deed,” said Sheeler.

Sheeler said that man, Hector J. Martinez allegedly went as far as having a woman act as the grantor in front of the notary.

However, authorities said the woman who actually owned the property died in 2021.

“We received a complaint from the Berks County Treasurer’s Office and the complaint came about as a result of the allegation that there may be fraud involved,” said Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

The District Attorney said his office has launched an investigation.

“So, in fact this was a fraudulent deed, a fraudulent signature and fortunately we were able to discover it and charge Hector Junior Martinez with a number of offenses related to his illicit activity,” said Adams.

Multiple felonies are among the charges he faces.

Civil court paperwork obtained from the Recorder of Deeds Office alleges Martinez transferred the legal title of another Reading property to himself in 2021.

Charges have not been filed in that case.

“So, it’s on our radar and we are actively investigating his activities and we’re going to make sure that he hasn’t done this before and if it has, clearly we will have questions about his activities,” said Adams.

While deed theft is a rising national issue, so far the number of cases in Berks County have been limited.

“People are worried about it, but it just has not been a big item here,” said Sheeler.

Coming up Friday at 6 p.m. on part two of our series, we are going to discuss ways you can watch out for deed theft and different measures that are being discussed to prevent it.