Alleged rental scam leads to arrest of two El Paso women

ABC-7 found itself in the middle of an alleged rental scam Thursday that eventually led to the arrest of two El Paso women on unrelated charges.

According to police reports, Melissa Maldonado and Annette Dominguez had been evicted from a home on the 6000 block of Faust Wardy in Northeast El Paso.

However, over the past several weeks, they allegedly rented out the home — which they did not own — and took security deposits from at least six families.

Several people told ABC-7 they paid deposits ranging from $500 to $1,000 dollars before Maldonado and Dominguez disappeared. On Thursday, they tracked them down.

A crowd of more than a dozen people gathered outside an East El Paso home in the 14000 block of Alma Point to confront the two women who allegedly scammed them out of thousands of dollars.

“It made my blood boil,” said Tiarra Herrera, who had given the women a security deposit of nearly a thousand dollars. “I was mad. I was sad. I didn’t know what to think. She made up a fake lease. She gave receipts. I thought, like, you know, it was real.”

“We went, we saw the home, she showed it to us as if it was her own,” said Angelique Hagan, who has two small children. “We signed the lease on her dining room table. We gave her cash. We signed the receipt.”

“It was all legit, until she disappeared with all our money,” said Valerie Gray. “We’ve been (filing) police reports. This has been going on since Nov. 13, so we took it upon ourselves to do our own investigating and we found where she’s at and this is the home where she’s at.”

With the crowd outside growing more and more upset, and the women refusing to answer the door, El Paso Police showed up and went inside the home to speak with Maldonado and Dominguez. About an hour later they emerged with both women in handcuffs.

Both women covered their faces and would not speak with ABC-7 as they were escorted to police cars with the small crowd cheering.

“It shows how pathetic and sad they are that they had to cover their faces,” Gray said, “because they couldn’t look us in the face.”

“I’m glad to know we were able to put a stop to what she’s doing,” added Hagan.

“I feel a little better knowing that she’s not going to be able to do this to anybody else,” Herrera said.

According to Police, both women were arrested on outstanding traffic warrants. Maldonado also had a theft warrant and is on probation. The investigation into the alleged rental scam continues.