HPD busts 'Little Home Depot'

Wednesday morning HPD raided the Silve Trading Post, a Houston building supply retailer known as "Little Home Depot." Although owner Bernie Gonzalez has maintained that everything about her business is legal, she is suspected of selling stolen materials and running the biggest dealer in the city's building supplies black market. When pressed on the issue, Gonzalez said that she believes the materials that are delivered to her and then sold aren't stolen, they're just leftovers.

Police have raided the Silve Trading Post before, and this time they spent months putting together an operation aimed at the alleged black market retailer. During the course of their investigation, they learned that many suppliers would first steal large cars and trucks, then steal building supplies and bring them to the Silve Trading Post to be sold. Many of the items that police carried away yesterday still had stickers on them from the real Home Depot.

The Silve Trading Post is known to many builders as a well-stocked supplier that satisfies their needs, from plywood to windows to shingles and everything in between. The construction supplies black market has grown along with Houston's housing market, and this particular retailer had truckloads of expensive supplies that police carted off. Who knew that construction supplies was such a high stakes game?