13 January 2018 A South Carolina woman returned home from vacation to find a family of strangers living in her […]
13 January 2018
A South Carolina woman returned home from vacation to find a family of strangers living in her new house.
Katherine Lang, 75, was stunned when she opened the doors to her new home in Beaufort, South Carolina, on Sunday to find 22-year-old Tyggra Shepherd inside with a friend and pets.
It turns out Tyggra Shepherd, 22, who thought she had found the perfect place to settle in her family as they relocated from Kentucky, was a victim of an online scam, the Beaufort Gazette reported.
‘I was so crushed when I found out it was a scam,’ Shepherd told The Beaufort Gazette.
Shepherd told the paper she found the three-bedroom furnished home advertised in a Facebook group for $850 a month posted by a woman named Rosie Ruggles. She wired $1,150 for the fake lease, and was told to use the unlocked back door to start moving her belongings into the house because the person delivering the keys had been arrested.
Lang bought the house in October, but was still living at her previous home waiting for it to sell. After returning from vacation, she decided to check on the pipes due to the recent cold weather and that’s when she noticed the unwelcomed guests.
A schedule has been set for Shepherd to move out, and Lang has decided to soon move into her new home.
Lang said she fears the scammers had been watching her property while she was renovating it and knew when the house was going to be unoccupied.
On Facebook, others have complained about Ruggles posts in other groups.