Imperial Beach real estate office raided

Sheriff's deputies and San Diego police officers raided the office of One Source Realty in Imperial Beach on the morning of December 21st. The raid added to the recent troubles of well-known local property managers Richard and Cheryl Schaumburg.

The Schaumburgs, who used to have their photos on placards all around I.B., were leading real estate agents in the area for over 20 years but have been the center of public scandals involving their financial dealings since 2014.

In October of this year, Richard Schaumburg was identified as the person who made what the Imperial Beach Chamber of Commerce referred to as an "unauthorized withdrawal" of $35,000 from the chamber's bank account, an incident that is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Financial Crimes Unit of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The Schaumburgs also are defendants in over two dozen civil lawsuits in local courts. Last December, their office was picketed by citizens who carried signs that read, “Schaumburgs Steal Rent,” based on allegations that the couple failed to correctly transfer funds between renters and property owners.

A vehicle from the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, a federal agency that examines digital evidence, was also on the scene during the raid.

Witnesses say police spent more than an hour at the small office taking evidence from the building, which is located a few steps from the beach on Seacoast Drive near Pier Plaza.

No one answered the phone at One Source Realty or at One Choice Realty, another business name for the Schaumburgs.

The sheriff's department referred all questions to the San Diego County district attorney, whose spokesperson, Tanya Sierra, said, "our office does not confirm the existence of an investigation or comment on warrants or searches."

Disclosure: This reporter rented an Imperial Beach apartment through the Schaumburgs in 2012; the apartment turned out to be in the middle of foreclosure, leading to a cancelation of the lease soon after. At the time, Cheryl Schaumburg said it was done in error.