Cops Hunt Man For Allegedly Scamming Two Unwitting Families In Rent Ripoff Involving Vacant Home In Foreclosure

In Marietta, Georgia, WSB-TV Channel 2 reports:

• Two Cobb County families are searching for a man who collected thousands of dollars for a rented home and disappeared. It turns out the two-story Marietta home was in foreclosure. Local investigators have since joined the hunt for the man.

• "Unfortunately, lost $1,100,” victim Laura Price told Channel 2 Action News reporter Ross Cavitt. [...] After seeing a roadside ad, she contacted the advertised real estate agent, Celyon “Lonnie” Barclay, who she said took the deposit and told her to move in. “For the first month’s rent, I tried to meet him and he never showed up,” Price said.

• After filing a report, Price, and Cavitt, discovered that Barclay has been in and out of jail on various charges and has a list of companies he’s incorporated that don’t seem to exist, with phone numbers that go nowhere.

• To top it off, the home was rented to another family who found the ad on Craigslist and moved in a few weeks ago. “I found out since then the house was in bankruptcy, and I can no longer get in contact with him,” resident Jeff Germany told Cavitt. Germany said Barclay apparently has no rights to the house, and the property will be sold on the courthouse steps in a few weeks.

Source: Man Accused In Rental Rip-Off.