Like bloodhounds on the scent — or maybe more like pigs sniffing for truffles — industrious teens will find places to get drunk and do other things they have seen in movies. And with a large number of houses sitting vacant while awaiting sale or foreclosure, it’s a partier’s market out there.

KGO-TV in San Francisco reports on an alert neighbor in nearby Concord who was able to pre-empt a party from going down in the vacant home on his block.

“When I came home, the front door of the house was open,” he explains.

He called the police, who arrived around the same time as carloads of presumably pimply teens began arriving. That was enough to throw off the night’s revelries, but the neighbor says it didn’t stop potential partygoers from popping by to check things out.

“All night, literally until like 2 in the morning, there were cars, probably more than 30 or 40 coming through here full of kids,” he recalls.

The neighbor claims the cops told him that pesky adolescents are doing this all over the area. Some are even charging $5-10 a head for the privilege of partying in some bank-owned property.

The realtor for the house is grateful that the neighbor caught wind of the party before it happened, as the short sale of this property is set to close in the next week.

He explains the huge problems the party could have caused:

“Number one, the buyer would not want to close. Number two, the bank wouldn’t pay for anything, it’s an as-is sale and number three, the seller — anticipating a short sale — would have ended up getting a foreclosure on her record. So it really could have put a big damper on this whole process.”

“Oh yeah… well short sale this!” we imagine some snotty teenager saying, while rolling a pack of cigarettes into the sleeve of his white T-shirt. We should also admit that our vision of tough teenagers has not evolved beyond The Outsiders.

Thanks to Alex for the tip!

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.