January 16, 2009
Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

SHERIFF’S INVESTIGATORS PUT HALT TO RENTAL SCAM

The home isn’t even hers, but that didn’t stop Libra Latham from renting the same DeBary house to three different people. Volusia County Sheriff’s investigators, however, put a halt this week to the rental scam by turning the tables on the 37-year-old mastermind. Now, Latham is in jail on nine felony offenses, with additional criminal charges likely to follow.

Investigators aren’t sure how long Latham has been pulling the scam and how many victims are out there. Sheriff’s investigators discovered one victim through Latham’s own records who didn’t even realize he had been scammed. And Volusia County isn’t the only jurisdiction investigating Latham. She’s also a suspect in at least one other similar fraud in Altamonte Springs .

Based on the findings of the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, here’s how the scam worked: Latham would scan the listings on the web site Craigslist, looking for homes in the area that were for rent or sale. Latham would then post her own ads for the same homes, but at a lower price, then pose as the rental agent, make phony rental deals and take off with the victims’ cash. That’s just what happened to a 43-year-old woman who responded to an ad on Craigslist back in September for a home to rent on Spring Glenn Drive in DeBary. The victim met at the house with a woman who claimed to be a Realtor. Investigators think the suspect may have conned an actual Realtor into giving her the access code to the key lock box. The victim paid a $1,500 cash deposit to the suspect to rent the home, but later contacted the Sheriff’s Office after she discovered that the homeowner didn’t know anything about the rental agreement. In October, a 35-year-old woman who responded to an ad on Craigslist was scammed out of a $500 cash deposit from a woman claiming to be the agent for a home on Caracas Road in DeBary. Once again, the suspect managed to gain entry into the home and gave the victim a tour of the interior before taking her money and presenting her with a phony rental agreement. As it turns out, the homeowner had listed the house for sale on Craigslist.

The scam was brought to a halt on Wednesday, when the suspect once again tried the same ruse on the same home on Spring Glenn Drive. By that time, the suspect had managed to obtain a key to the house. But the would-be victims, who brought along a friend, looked at the house and then left before any money changed hands. Afterwards, the friend became suspicious and contacted the homeowner, and the homeowner called the Sheriff’s Office. Recognizing an opportunity to catch the suspect in the act, investigators immediately devised a plan to arrange another viewing of the home the same night. The would-be victims, who had agreed to assist the Sheriff’s Office, met with the suspect at the house shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, just as planned. While the suspect executed the phony rental agreement, investigators were waiting nearby. They descended on the house and took Latham into custody at about 7:45 p.m.

After her arrest, Latham declined to talk to investigators. However, they did recover some valuable evidence in the case, including a clipboard with other phony rental agreements. Investigators have already contacted one person whose name was found on Latham’s clipboard, and he too had recently put down $400 to rent the same home on Spring Glenn Drive. The victim was supposed to come up with additional money and didn’t realize he had been scammed until he was contacted by Sheriff’s investigators. Latham also is a suspect in another case the Sheriff’s Office is investigating from November, where a victim found a home for rent in Deltona through Craigslist, paid a $500 cash deposit and then changed her mind and tried to back out of the deal, but the suspect never returned the money and stopped taking her calls. Latham, who’s being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on $60,000 bond, is currently facing four counts of burglary, three counts of scheme to defraud and two counts of grand theft. Anyone who thinks they may have been victimized by Latham is asked to contact Sergeant Virgil Ford or investigator Chuck Lee at (386) 668-3830.