Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Pittsburgh-Area Man Dumps Girlfriend, Allegedly Forges Deed To Remove Her From Title To Jointly-Owned Home, Pledges It As Collateral To Pocket $76K HELOC Proceeds, Then Bolts For Parts Unknown

In Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania, WPXI-TV Channel 11 reports:
  • An arrest warrant has been issued for a man accused of forging a deed to his house and taking his ex-girlfriend’s name off of it after their relationship ended.

    Lynne Harr claims Dennis Mueller was leading a double life, using a dating service in New Jersey. Harr has been living in a Mount Oliver home since moving in with her now ex-boyfriend in 2011.

    According to police documents, Dennis Mueller legally added Harr’s name to the deed in 2016.

    But when he moved out, Harr started going through her own documents.

    “And I came across the copy of the deed and it didn't look right,” Harr said. She discovered Mueller had taken her name off the deed to the home, without her knowing.

    He legally put me on the house, then very illegally took me off of that house,” Harr said.

    According to the criminal complaint, Harr found boxes where it appeared Mueller had been practicing signatures for local notaries, and even admitted to detectives the deed transfer wasn’t done legally.

    Harr also found he took out a line of credit, using the house as collateral, getting a $76,000 cash advance. “All for him, and now he wants me to pay it back,” Harr said.

    And the secrets, Harr said, didn’t stop there. She found receipts for a dating service she says he signed up for called “South Jersey Matchmaker” while he was traveling for his job.

    Her attorney says they’ve seen cases where people have forged deeds before and is hoping they can get it fixed, so Harr can stay in the home she thought was partly hers.

    “We're hoping he's willing to right his wrong, and there's a lot of work to do and help to become whole again,” attorney Kushal Dave said.

    “He was very good at it,” Harr said. “He was very good at acquiring the information he needed to achieve his goal.”

    Channel 11 reached out to Mueller’s attorney who said he’s handling any civil cases, and has advised Mueller to get a criminal attorney.

    He had no further comment.