US airman Andrew Beckham’s dog, car stolen by Colorado house sitter while deployed overseas
Airman pleads for help finding missing dog, car after trusted house sitter disappears
We’re all rooting for you, Andrew! 
Well reddit r/denver is blowing up pretty big so I guess we’ll see.
Thank you for the update, sounds like the police are closing in on him. Really hope you get your precious Mav back safe and sound. Shocking that the sitter had previous criminal history.
Worth noting that sitter passed the THS criminal background check.
Any info available from his family?
But the article says charges were dropped; we don’t know the reason for this but presumably if charges were dropped nothing would show up in THS checks. Likewise if he had gone to court and been found ‘Not Guilty’.
He had no criminal record.
Between the sitter’s name and city, only a single 27 yo pops up in a simple search. If they and the sitter are one, they have an arrest record and traffic violations that would raise multiple, very big 
s regardless of criminal convictions if I were vetting him for a sit. As in not a chance. Which serves as fair warning for all hosts thinking they can rely at all on THS background checks that were, in this case, utterly useless.
Do you think the THS background checks provide a false sense of security and they are actually pretty useless? I think for UK and European sitters THS only verifies identity.
Yes it’s only identity checks for Brits and Europeans. I thought only Americans had criminal background checks.
Of course though it would be more accurate to change your “pretty” to my “completely”.
The background checks are required by THS’s liability insurers as legal CYA against exactly the type of thing @Akbeckham86 is suffering through. And, yes, THS’s marketing of THS’s compliance with insurer requirements gives every member a false sense of security. How many dozens to hundreds of times have multiple sitters insisted on this forum in the last year alone that they should be trusted and should not have to reveal their full names or addresses to hosts because they passed THS’s background check. That’s delusional. Unfortunately, I suspect that hyping up the background checks is also required by the insurers.
The “criminal” background check THS requires wouldn’t let you rent a dog house much less be entrusted alone in the private sanctuary of a stranger’s home for extended periods of time. I think it’s a testament to humanity that the THS model works so well virtually always. But it is truly painful to witness when it goes as horribly wrong as it has in this case.
Thanks for your reply, I was trying to be polite when I described the checks as pretty useless. Also, it’s perhaps a typical English understatement, what we really mean is it’s an utter waste of time.
I can’t comment on the liability and insurance issues, but I suspect that as THS is UK based then in any dispute or claim English law would in place. It might even be in the Ts an Cs.
Yes, THS does indeed work well for almost all of the time and it’s shame when there are the occasional, but, serious failings.
FWIW, I don’t think a background check could or should be picking up stuff like traffic violations and I don’t think people who have had a license suspended at any point should be barred from house/pet sitting. Driving the HO’s vehicle is unrelated to THS. It is up to the HO to request to review the license and (as applicable) liability insurance. THS and its 3rd party vendors shouldn’t and likely cannot be digging through driving records of US states (etc. as applicable).
Hi everyone,
I’ve temporarily put on hold a few posts in line with forum guidelines/ToS, including one that named an individual potentially involved in an active investigation. We’ll update the thread when we can.
Update: Discussion reopened 
I get that in this case the sitter looked good per THS – previous 5-star sits, no issues, passed a criminal background check. But in answer to your question generally: I don’t consider a great vetting tool and it could provide a sense of false security as does a lot of the THS advertising. I don’t know if I’d describe it as “totally” useless nor do I think that more people vet better if it didn’t exist. It might simply be a harder sell for homeowners (and probably US insurers) to not have it.
As a homeowner I try to vet in various ways. And sometimes I go with my gut after a chat. But the system is risky. Some risks are unavoidable. In this particularly awful case, there should be lessons learned for the company to help avoid or lessen the number of such incidents. I would hope that some good would come out of this in the future even in the form of more guidelines for vetting or maintaining a sit in which in the homeowner would be away, more support somehow for sitters experiencing a crisis, etc. I doubt there will be any such lessons learned as documenting the lessons itself could probably open the company up to litigation if there were further incidents and adding more checks in the system could cost money.
I don’t see how THS can do more than a basic background check. I think it then falls into “buyer beware” mode for hosts. Tracker on your car and collar of your pet. Make sure your pet is chipped. Getting a copy of their drivers license if driving your car to add to your insurance. There was one host who posted here and said the sitter got into an accident with his car and the bill was $1200. She never reimbursed him as she said she would. If he had her on the insurance for that period he would not be out 1200. So I think this is the lesson learned for all hosts. THS can’t be responsible for someone having a mental breakdown or going from non criminal when they did the background check to criminal.
Hi all,
I’ve closed the discussion again as a post included the name of an individual potentially involved in an active investigation.
Thanks.