jim rokakis, a former county treasurer, showed us. >> jim rokakis: we're looking at a neighborhood thatt as many vacant houses awaiting demolition as there are houses with people living in them. we have one here. one here. one here. one there. >> pelley: rokakis is leading the effort to tear down thousands of abandoned homes because they're rotting their neighborhoods from the inside out. it often starts, he told us, when a vacant house becomes an open house to thieves. it's a nice house from the roof to about here, and then down here, it's been ripped to pieces. what's going on? >> rokakis: well, this is typical because this is as high as they could reach without using ladders. they ripped off the aluminum siding, which you'll see on most of these houses. the aluminum and the vinyl siding comes off. it's getting about a buck a pound. >> pelley: essentially, foreclosure scavengers have been through here? >> rokakis: the thieves have gone high-tech. they know when evictions are occurring because they're posted online. and they will follow the sheriff. they're usually there that afternoon