Crackpot NYS Senate Candidate Gets Pinched For Allegedly Fleecing Combined $50K From Ten Victims In Craigslist Rent Scam; Cops: Suspect Offered To-Good-To-Be True Monthly Rent In Exchange To Those Willing To Fork Over Up To Year's Advanced Rent In Cash

In New York City, the New York Post reports:

• A candidate for New York State Senate was charged with grand larceny [] for ripping off at least 10 people in a Craigslist rent scam, police sources told The Post.
  
  Cops say Jon Girodes, 38, listed his luxury apartment at 635 W. 42nd St. for a bargain-basement price of $1,100 and “rented” it to victims who could pony up to a year’s rent in cash.
  
  Sara Angella, 31, said she answered Girodes ad in mid-August and met him at the gorgeous Hell’s Kitchen apartment. “I knew it was too good to be true, but I looked him up and he really was running for the Senate. He was wearing a Trump hat when I met him,” she told The Post.
  
  Angella said she was starting a Master’s Degree in theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary and thought she had lucked into “some good karma.” From her student loans she took $9,000 cash and gave it to him in exchange for the lease.
  
  But the day she was supposed to move in – Aug. 28 – she said the Republican candidate texted her “a bunch of excuses” about why he couldn’t meet her at the apartment or give her the keys.
  
  Angella said when she complained to the building management, she was told she wasn’t the only victim. “He is a true sociopath,” she said. “He created a cloak of legitimacy before he struck.”
  
  When Angella complained to a cops and a reporter about Girodes, she said the political hopeful called her and threatened to kill her and her family.
  
  Cops say Girodes’ victims were both women and men and he took them for a total of $50,000 combined.
  
  The arrest of the Republican candidate comes one month after The Post reported on another woman who claimed he stole $3,200 from in the same swindle.
  
  “He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m a public official, I own three businesses, I couldn’t scam you if I wanted to,’” the prospective tenant said. The woman claimed she gave Girodes a deposit, signed a lease, and planned to move in at the beginning of September.
  
  But as she sat in a moving truck across the street, Girodes told her the deal was off.
  
  In a text message she showed The Post, Girodes called her a “crazy drama queen.” He did not return calls seeking comment, but ended up dispatching an intern from his office to refund the money.
  
  The arrest comes just days after the politician told a reporter he was bringing KFC, Kool-Aid and watermelon to potential voters in the Harlem district he hoped to win – enraging the community.
  
  The telephone at his campaign headquarters was disconnected Friday.
  
  As Girodes was being walked out of the 7th Precinct, he grinned at reporters and said, “I love the NYPD. There’s two sides to every story.”

For the story, see GOP state senate candidate charged with rent scam.