NEWTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A local woman is facing charges after police say she illegally rented out a Newton home that was not hers to advertise, cheating one potential renter out of thousands of dollars.
Malcolm Mayfield, who was looking to move from Georgia to Massachusetts, spotted the Newton rental online and reached out to who he thought was the realtor.
“She told me her name, she had a computer that had a 13-page lease; we went through the lease line by line,” he recalled.
On a park bench in Newton, Mayfield shelled out almost $3,000 in cash for a security deposit and got the keys to what he thought would be his new home.
When he showed up to move in, the legitimate real estate agent, Chuck Petitti, was there and told Mayfield that he had been scammed.
“I could see his jaw drop and he said, ‘No, you’re kidding me. I’ve got a moving truck coming. I’m ready to move in today. I got nowhere else to go,'” Petitti remembered. “I felt terrible.”
Petitti claims the fake realtor stole the keys to the house when she got a tour of the place, while posing as a potential renter.
“She was able to look through the drawers in the kitchen and there was an extra set of keys in that drawer and that’s where she gained the keys,” he said.
Petitti added that the pictures from his listing were reposted at a lower price with her name on it.
He told 7NEWS that he was notified that other potential renters contacted her but thought twice and backed out.
Mayfield decided to help police and set up another park-bench meeting to give her money for rent.
“The police were swift in coming in and they just said, ‘Hey, you know it’s the police,’ and I asked her, ‘Do you know why we’re here?’ and she says, ‘Because I’ve been stealing money,'” Mayfield said.
Officers arrested 21-year-old Emily Manning of Brookline for larceny.
Signs have since been posted on the Newton rental, alerting people of who the legitimate realtor is for the place.
To prevent a situation like this from happening, renters are encouraged to pull city records and find out who owns the property, go see the rental unit in person, and never wire money or give anyone cash.
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