Chutzpah

Must be the same guys who broke into the rec room late one night and stole the new carpet (with underpad) from under the weight machines, took the tv and furniture with 40 apartments overlooking and nobody heard a thing.

$120K staircase banister stolen in Gilroy break-in: "-- Someone entered a house that was being remodeled and made off with an unusual item, police said -- a two-story, wrought iron, 1920s staircase banister worth $120,000.

The banister was stolen along with other items sometime Dec. 19 or the following two days, authorities said today.

The home is on a 40-acre parcel, and the intruders entered through a missing door, said Deputy Serg Palanov, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. No one was home at the time.

The staircase consisted of 40 wooden steps stretching up two floors, and its banister rail -- lined with a dark-colored hardwood -- was bolted to the floor. Every other wrought-iron steel upright was topped with a sculpted bronze horse head.

'The banister had been ripped out of the floor at its base,' Palanov said. 'I don't know if someone thought it was gold, because otherwise, you don't come into a house and say, 'Hey! A staircase!' '

The thieves also took multicolored tile valued at $6,000 that was at the base of the stairs. The tile was going to be used to create a different design for each step, Palanov said."

A missing door. Brilliant!