Now, I’ve heard of using someone else’s identity to get a credit card, or maybe even a car loan, but using it to get an entire house in Springfield ^[1]?!?! That’s some chutzpah right there. With Jose Lara’s stolen wallet, Elizabeth Cabrera-Rivera got a $419,000 townhouse in Springfield with his documentation, then deeded it over to herself as a gift.

Three parties were involved in the case that probably should’ve caught that something was wrong: WestStar Mortgage, who did the first no-money-down mortgage, Fairfax attorney Rocco J. DeLeonardis who handled the deed, and BB&T Bank who refinanced the house. It wasn’t until Lara got a check for returned closing fees at his Winchester home that something was clearly wrong, and he got BB&T involved. They did the right thing and got Cabrera-Rivera and her husband Lorenzo Castro to come back to the bank to fill out some more paperwork where they were arrested by the Arlington Police.

What’s really odd? They were making the payments on the house, just fine.