A Riverside teenager was arrested last week for allegedly forging a deed and selling a home for $72,000 in Burbank, Palos Heights police said.
Police took a report on November 20 from a manager for a Title Company in Palos Heights, who reported that they were the victim of a theft – namely the fraudulent sale of a property in the 4900 block of 84th Street in Burbank.
After the sale was completed, they learned that the deed was forged and the property was sold fraudulently when the owner of the property contacted them.
The owner believes that the deed to the residence was forged and filed with the Cook County Clerk’s office fictitiously. The rightful owner of the property received the residence when the owner passed in 2019.
An investigation revealed that the deed was forged in April of 2025 showing that the deceased owner had signed the property over to Gold Coast Realty LLC. Once the deed was transferred, Gold Coast Realty sold the property fraudulently via the internet, police said.
Search warrants turned up a suspect, Muhammad Salem, of Riverside, who had filed Gold Coast Realty LLC in his name as sole member through the IRS.
Additional search warrants revealed that Salem had purchased an account on Optery, which is a web-based product that lets people pay to delete information from the internet.
The investigation revealed that Salem had paid to delete the deceased property owner’s information from the internet in an attempt to cover his tracks.
Bank records showed the title company transferred approximately $72,000 into a bank account in Salem’s name in November 2025, police said. Bank records show Salem transferred the money out of the initial account to another account in his name.
On February 5, Salem turned himself into the Palos Heights Police Department. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved one count of Forgery and one count of Theft greater than $10,000.00, but less than $100,000.