Scammers Flip House Paid for by Church
In Mephis TN a local church was scammed by a "Katrina victim" into buying her a house, that she later sold without having ever moved in!
A church tried to do a good deed from some Katrina victims and was burned in the proccess.
Using a vetting system they decided to buy a house for Joshua and Delores Thompson.
The committee also heard how the family had lost its home and most of its possessions and how the children, a 14-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy, were eager to get back in school. The family said it wanted to resettle in Memphis.
Some time later the couple gave a very ungrateful interview on WHBQ-TV in Memphis.
The house was was bought in Thompson's name. She took possession in February and sold it in September. Property transfer records for the resale list her as unmarried; the papers from the original sale list her as married.
Delores Thompson said, "I really don't like this area. I really didn't, and I didn't know anybody, so that's why I didn't move in and I sold it. The house was given to me. I have the paperwork and everything."
The church has yet to discuss whether they will take legal action against the Thompsons.
Sources:
Danbury News Times On-Line
All Headline News
Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ
My view:
This is pretty sad. The members of the church were trying to do a good deed for a family displaced by the effects of Katrina. In the end, they got scammed.
The couple came in begging for a home, sob story and all. They got the church to buy the house for them and only a few months later the couple sold the house and went back to New Orleans!
Though FEMA records did say the couple was displaced there was no record if their home in New Orleans was destroyed or not.
It's people like this that destroy charity.
Because the home was in their name there really is not much the church can do at this point. I can only hope they will learn from this mistake and be more careful in future acts of charity. I don't want them to stop being charitable, just be a little bit wiser when they are being charitable to this level.
Why the assumption that the couple were scammers? Maybe they were and maybe they weren’t. The church gave them the house – were they not entitled to do what they wanted with it? How about if you give someone a Christmas gift and they take it back to the store? Does that make them a “scammer?” It just seems to me that that church should have kept title to the property and allowed the needy to live in it. That would have also prevented any problem from arising in case of the untimely deaths of the couple. If the couple *had* moved in and then the family had died in a tragic car accident then the govt would have gotten the house perhaps. The bigger question for those who want to be outraged over this story is what the couple did with the $88K. Did they gamble it away? Or use it to help build a new life in New Orleans?
this is George Bush’s fault. If he had not blown up the levy’s to keep the blacks from voting. This would have never happened.
This is really sad… and the comments are even sadder. These people need to be taken to court. They scammed this church… They contradict themselves by saying they like the area, not living in the house, selling the house then saying they didn’t like the area. The arrogance is disgusting…
“I really don’t like this area. I really didn’t, and I didn’t know anybody, so that’s why I didn’t move in and I sold it. The house was given to me. I have the paperwork and everything.”
These people, if they had a shred of decency would have given the title back to the church if they wanted to make a life somewhere else after making a go of it in the church given house.
This is disgusting and these people should be prosecuted, out of sheer principal and warning to other church communities of these creeps.