Family living hotel to hotel after being scammed out of thousands in attempt to rent home

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A woman, her husband and their six children are still struggling to cope with a huge financial blow they suffered recently. Police said someone scammed them out of thousands of dollars.

Now, the community is stepping up to help.

The Davis family is staying at a Lawrenceville hotel for now after police said they put money down for a lease, but found out it was all a scam when it was too late.

"I don’t think I saw a smile on my kids’ faces for probably about three weeks," said Brittnay Davis.

Bouncing from hotel to hotel -- with a service dog, six children and one child on the way -- has been chaotic, to say the least.

Brittnay Davis is ready for stability again. It’s been about a month since she and her husband said they were scammed out of $2,300. They signed a lease they thought was legitimate, and even moved into the Lawrenceville home, only to find out they had been duped.

TRENDING STORIES:

"Basically, I had found a house and went to the open house, filled out an application," Davis said.

She said the man running the open house claimed to be the owner, but wasn’t. He had somehow managed to get inside the home to host the open house. When Davis and her family moved in July 31, she said the real landlord and police showed up, informing them they had been scammed and they had to leave.

"There was nothing he did that raised a red flag like, 'Hey I shouldn’t do this,'" Davis said.

Davis, a disabled Navy veteran, was stranded and has been living in hotels ever since. When the Phoenix Patriot Foundation heard about her misfortune, the group stepped up in a big way to help.

"My heart goes out to her, she’s a great gal," said PPF CEO John Paulson. "It's a heart pulling, heart tugging story about getting scammed. And six kids, this is a big family."

Within just a few days, the Phoenix Patriot Foundation raised more than $6,000 for the Davis family.

They plan to keep the GoFundMe page up for the month of September. Davis said she decided to give 20 percent of the money raised back to the organization to help other veterans because she feels so fortunate.

"Thank you. Like, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. These are happy tears because I really didn’t think there were people that actually cared out there," Davis said.

Lawrenceville police said they are still investigating the case. No arrests have been made.

Cox Media Group