The Scam

When I was telling my Aunt Cindy about this story (the day that I found out) she said, "At least you will have a story to tell." I was so mad! I would rather not have the story but it is what it is. And yes, I do have the story to tell. Now that it has been two weeks I'm not mad but I think it is comical that she said that.

On Sunday night we found a house for rent on Craigslist for a really good deal. Joe and I talked about it and decided to respond to the post. We got an email saying the "landlord" would call us and tell us where this place was. We were a little leery because it was such a great deal. We had decided that we weren't going to give the people any money unless we signed a lease and had a key.

On Tuesday morning (7 a.m.)we went and looked at the house. It was amazing. We call Brad, the landlord back and tell him we are interested in leasing the fabulous place. He said he would meet us at the house in 20 minutes. He came, we went over the leasing agreement, we signed the lease, we wrote out a check for first & last months rent + deposit, he gave us the keys, told us where to send rent, and off we were. We were so excited! After it had all sunk in we had realized we didn't know who to call about the water/sewer/trash and needed some more information on some stuff. Joe tried calling Brad. No answer. We thought it wasn't a big deal because maybe he was just busy or worked weird hours.

Joe called again on Wednesday. No Answer. I was starting to get annoyed. Why wouldn't he call us back? It's not like he went out of town and didn't know we were calling because it was a cell phone. We had this awful gut feeling. We had moved our camping stuff over the night before so Joe wanted to make sure it was still there and that everything looked normal. When we got to the house, everything was right where we left it. We were a little relieved but something just didn't feel right. We decided to drive passed where he told us to send the rent money. This is where we knew we were in trouble. The address didn't exist! We came home and got on the Internet to do a little more research. We got on the USPS Website and the Idaho Website to find that sure enough-- this address was made up.

Thursday morning Joe tried to call Brad again. No Answer. I went to work and could not focus on anything but this ordeal. I was talking to a co-worker/friend and she suggested I call the attorney generals office and maybe they could help me get to the bottom of this. (I figured if I knew that Brad owned the house then we would be fine.) After work I came straight home and started making phone calls. After being transferred more than 5 times I ended up calling the water district in Meridian. The guy I talked to was so nice and helpful! He even broke the rules and told me who owned the house. It was Residential Property Management Company. I called them immediately. I told my story (for the millionth time) and they was super surprised. They hadn't rented the place to anyone. So-- We were scammed.

Friday, I took work off to get everything straightened out. Luckily Joe didn't have to work so we went to the Police Station and filed a report. The officer seemed pretty optimistic about the whole thing as Brad was dumb enough to use his real name and a similar address, plus he already has a record.

We went back to the station on Monday to do a photo line-up. Thank goodness Joe could pick the guy out because I sure couldn't. All of the photos looked the same! They have a warrant out for his arrest and are still working on the case. We are now just waiting patiently to catch the creep!

Oh ya! I forgot some details... He cashed the check at our bank (right after we gave it to him) and luckily Wells Fargo got his finger print and two forms of I.D. The officer we are working with is working with Wells Fargo to get all of that information. I really hope Brad Kinney is as dumb as it seems!

Thanks for enduring to the end on this super long story...