From the Queens Courier:
An Astoria landlord has been charged with taking thousands of dollars from potential tenants after posting a Craigslist listing for an apartment and room at his home that were never vacant.
According to a criminal complaint, Mario Lalicata, also known as Mario Lamagra, posted a rental listing on Craigslist for a basement apartment or room at his 48th Street home in Astoria. Between March 23 and August 13, Lalicata allegedly took security deposits ranging from $500 to $2,000 from prospective tenants and collected first month’s rent in two cases. Afterwards, as the move-in dates got closer, Lalicata allegedly suspended the moves after making up numerous excuses. When the tenants tried asking for their money back, the landlord allegedly promised to return the money or said the money was being used for repairs. Lalicata allegedly then stopped answering and returning the tenants’ calls.
On August 13, Lalicata was arraigned on a 22-count criminal complaint with ten counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, two counts of first-degree scheme to defraud and ten counts of petit larceny.
9 comments:
What a lovely looking "house". It screams "Queens".
In Vallonia you are encouraged to extract every dollar you can from your property.
The story is that you are a hard working immigrant that has to pay for your kids in college.
The reality is after they graduate from college no one in your family THINKS about staying.
A HOME becomes AN INVESTMENT PROPERTY.
With the Vallones in NE Queens and the chair at borough hall the rest of the boro will be like shooting ducks in a barrel.
Queens is becoming the borough of rental houses. Most of the people that live in queens are people who rent. Which is a shame. The whole borough has become terrible......there's no sense of a community anymore in queens. I would be lucky if my neighbors even speak English!
Lots of rentals in Manhattan and Brooklyn and there is a sense of community but not the pathological dependency on politicians like you find in Queens.
Peter Vallone??
Houses like that one are usually the oldest on the blok, Anon no. 1. They were built, and then the grade of the street was raised. It's probably taller in back.
"Queens is becoming the borough of rental houses. Most of the people that live in queens are people who rent. Which is a shame. The whole borough has become terrible......there's no sense of a community anymore in queens. I would be lucky if my neighbors even speak English!"
That's true. I noticed the change too w/ more renters in Queens. But sometimes you never know. Your neighbor might actually speak English like me. But I get mistaken for not speaking English sometimes because I just don't speak in English around my neighbors. I just don't talk to my neighbors but I speak it fluently because English is my native language. I just speak 4 different languages (I had to learn 2 romance and 2 non-romance languages while growing up):)
There IS a difference between a BASEMENT and a CELLAR. This would have been a cellar "apartment." Cellars may not be used for "living space".
I gave this guy 6,000 and just read this article. I am screwed, no one answers the door, no phone, nothing. I will never use craigslist or a realtor again.
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