Clandestine occupancy
We think of homes as having an exalted place among property uses, and for that reason we likewise have a rosy image of home owners,
but not all homes are used for licit purposes, and not all home owners are upright citizens, as illustrated by this Boston Herald story of a remarkable housing scam:
Scam artists who allegedly stole the identity of a 63-year-old former nun to buy properties in her name and sell them at a profit have been busted after their boldest move: trying to sell the woman’s own
“I got a phone call from a mortgage company about my house in
“I was so upset,” said Melody, who called police. “My heart was pounding. I had no spit in my mouth. I could barely speak. What this did to my peace of mind.”
Judith Melody got a shock when a mortgage company called her about properties she didn’t know she owned.
Most scams involve taking money from the mark — so who uses a false identity to pay money?
Whoa — that’s so heavy
Melody, a nun for 14 years and a 28-year teaching veteran at the former Monsignor Ryan High School in Dorchester, was “terrified and horrified” to learn just after Thanksgiving that she was the owner and mortgage holder of three properties that she had no knowledge of.
Who uses a fake name to buy an utterly immobile house?
People who need a secure place they own not in their own names. People who plan on using it for illegal home-based activities, such as growing marijuana, or manufacturing or storing illegal drugs:
The suspects had allegedly bought homes in Brockton, Halifax and Mattapan using her identity, going so far as having a 50-year-old black woman from West Harlem, N.Y., Judy Bonas, pose as the former nun, who is white, to obtain mortgages.
Just as we see home ownership as part of community fabric, strengthening ties of neighbor with neighbor, false or clandestine ownership must hide itself from the community, meaning that what takes place inside those walls is outside the bounds of normal law and propriety.
Head for the shootout, boys
When disputes arise, they must be settled by force:
That case was sparked after a teen was shot dead and four others were hit by gunfire during a three-day party at an abandoned house on
It takes little imagination to think of uses criminals might have for safe houses. But to buy the houses, the criminals must also manufacture false identities, complete with verifiable heritage:
Bonas had forged licenses from
Buyers must also have a credit history:
You have to shovel a lot to get a history
Her alleged cohorts also dummied up W-2 forms and other financial documentation using Melody’s identity.
With each element of back-story, the crime becomes larger and more organized:
And each thread is fragile
“This was a very elaborate, sophisticated, identity theft ring that reaches well beyond
Blair stumbled onto Melody’s case while working an “aggressive and ongoing investigation” involving similar mortgage schemes with Massachusetts State Police, the FBI, and U.S. Postal Service inspectors.
Like decaying radioactive isotopes, fake identities have half-lives, and because the property is immobile, periodically it has to transfer from one masque host to another:
Home ownership leaves records; indeed, property rights depend on records. People who want to realize residual value have to surface in the above-ground economy, where they can be caught:
In the sting that led to the arrests, investigators posed as real-estate lawyers at a mock closing Tuesday at the office of the Registry of Deeds, where Bonas was paid as the “seller” and two others were “buyers.”
Quotes are probably unnecessary. Even if she was pretending to be Sister Melody, Ms. Bonas was the house’s practical owner, and her successors were going to be buyers of record:
Bonas was arrested along with alleged home “buyers” Carmella Lassegue of Hyde Park and Andre J. L’Amerique of
The story has a happy ending:
Home ownership should make you happy
Melody found out the people who had “ruined her life” had been arrested in a phone call from Blair Tuesday night, who said: “Judy, we got them.”
