Grumpy
10-09-2008, 07:41 PM
A Miami woman is charged with grand theft after she allegedly swindled more than $25,000 from families who thought they were going to Disney World.
BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Once upon a time, a happy father celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary bought a deluxe vacation to Disney World for his whole family.
The magic ended there.
The $1,200 deal -- which included airfare, seven nights at Disney's Polynesian Resort, park entrances, free meals and a rental car for a family of four -- was pure fantasy. So was the offer for a limo ride to a romantic restaurant and spa treatment for his wife.
''Since we lost that money, we couldn't go anywhere,'' said Darrell Casto, 50, of Baytown, Texas. ``That money came from our tax return.''
The villain, detectives say, is a Miami-Dade con artist named Nancy Alvarez, 20, who ran a sham online company, A Fairy Tale Event, hawking fake vacation deals.
She posted bond and left jail Thursday after her arrest on grand theft charges this week.
''JUST GOT OUT AT 5AM......BAK ON THE STREET B------!!!!'' she wrote on her Myspace.com page upon her release Thursday.
Her defense attorney, Carlos Fleites, declined to comment until his firm can investigate.
In all, Alvarez scammed more than $25,000 from a dozen victims out of state, including a retired New York cop living in Canada, detectives said. She faces 42 felony counts.
Among the alleged victims is Casto, a chemical plant worker, who met his wife, Karen, at church in their town near Houston. They have two children: Autumn 14, and Cherith, 18, who is autistic and mentally retarded.
In June, Casto was browsing Craigslist.com when he found Alvarez's ad. ''HURRY! OFFER ENDS ON THURSDAY!'' it read.
He called the Miami-Dade number and left a voice mail. Alvarez called back quickly.
Casto agreed to overnight a money order to Alvarez. She would send the itinerary and paperwork. She even e-mailed a computer-generated invoice, Casto said, which read: ``Customer is 100% satisfied with purchase or full money back no questions asked!''
The deal was so good that Casto recommended Alvarez to his sister in Louisiana, who had been planning a Disney trip, too.
Soon, 10 more family members agreed to go.
''This was going to be a grand occasion for my family, for both of my sisters, my mom and dad to be all together in one place,'' Casto said. ``This was going to be a family reunion. This was going to be great.''
Said his sister Retha Warren: ``She was very professional. Very sweet. She had a knack for relating to you personally.''
Casto also called Alvarez to ask about a floral arrangement for his wife. Alvarez called him back to offer him the $199 limo-restaurant-spa package.
But by then, the family had grown suspicious.
No paperwork had arrived. Alvarez couldn't be reached. ''Please allow until this evening for contact. I am having a very stressful morning,'' Alvarez wrote in one e-mail.
She phoned to say a family member had died.
During the following weeks, Warren and her brother began researching Alvarez. Her phone number was actually an answering service. She had placed Craigslist ads in Denver, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
They found, via the Internet, other families who claimed to have been duped. They began posting online warnings.
Martin Oeschler, 46, an oil services worker in Cypress, Texas, says Alvarez scammed his family out of $18,500 for a bogus package to the Polynesian resort in Orlando. His daughters. Aimee, 10 and Elissa, 7, had never been to Disney.
''We had to sit down with the girls and explain to them this wasn't going to happen,'' Oeschler said. ``Both of them broke down and cried. It was gut-wrenching. It really was.''
The girls, he says, even wrote e-mails to Alvarez asking why she cheated the family. She never responded.
The FBI has received complaints about Alvarez for years, police say.
She has been married three times, including to her first-cousin, Heikel Vera, 23. They owe some $5,000 to aunt, Caridad Vera, 59, who helped them buy furniture.
''I don't know what her problem is. She's from a good family. Her father and mother work like mules,'' Caridad Vera said.
The investigators tasked with building a case against her were Detective Salvador Perez and Sgt. David Quintana, of Miami-Dade's Hammocks district, where Alvarez had lived and received checks.
Tracking her down was not hard: The e-mails came back to her computer's IP address. In her name also was her website and the post office box where she received checks.
The now-removed site, Afairytaleevent.com, featured Tinkerbell, Mickey Mouse and boasted of a 10-year reputation.
''It looked very legit,'' Perez said.
Perez -- who by coincidence had rendered first aid to Alvarez after she was in a wreck with a police car the year before -- arrested her in July. She was charged with third-degree grand theft and operating a business without a license.
Alvarez had blurted out that 'she was conducting business with a man that she doesn't know anything about him, only his name called `Bull.' She wanted to pay back the victims to avoid being arrested,'' Perez wrote in his report.
More complaints came flooding in.
After posting bond, Alvarez moved and changed her phone number. On Myspace.com, she posted a countdown of days before she planned to leave town.
Perez re-arrested her this week. She is charged with grand theft, unlicensed sell of travel and scheme to defraud.
Her arraignment is Oct. 27 in front of Circuit Judge Peter Adrien.
Back in Texas, families are still fuming.
Casto's daughter, Autumn, later traveled with her aunt's family to Disney. Casto and his wife did not. ''We haven't had any kind of 25th wedding anniversary as of yet,'' he said.
In Cypress, Oeschler says he dipped into his retirement fund to take his daughters to Disney.
''It was kind of a sacrifice -- but we had to go,'' he said.
BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Once upon a time, a happy father celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary bought a deluxe vacation to Disney World for his whole family.
The magic ended there.
The $1,200 deal -- which included airfare, seven nights at Disney's Polynesian Resort, park entrances, free meals and a rental car for a family of four -- was pure fantasy. So was the offer for a limo ride to a romantic restaurant and spa treatment for his wife.
''Since we lost that money, we couldn't go anywhere,'' said Darrell Casto, 50, of Baytown, Texas. ``That money came from our tax return.''
The villain, detectives say, is a Miami-Dade con artist named Nancy Alvarez, 20, who ran a sham online company, A Fairy Tale Event, hawking fake vacation deals.
She posted bond and left jail Thursday after her arrest on grand theft charges this week.
''JUST GOT OUT AT 5AM......BAK ON THE STREET B------!!!!'' she wrote on her Myspace.com page upon her release Thursday.
Her defense attorney, Carlos Fleites, declined to comment until his firm can investigate.
In all, Alvarez scammed more than $25,000 from a dozen victims out of state, including a retired New York cop living in Canada, detectives said. She faces 42 felony counts.
Among the alleged victims is Casto, a chemical plant worker, who met his wife, Karen, at church in their town near Houston. They have two children: Autumn 14, and Cherith, 18, who is autistic and mentally retarded.
In June, Casto was browsing Craigslist.com when he found Alvarez's ad. ''HURRY! OFFER ENDS ON THURSDAY!'' it read.
He called the Miami-Dade number and left a voice mail. Alvarez called back quickly.
Casto agreed to overnight a money order to Alvarez. She would send the itinerary and paperwork. She even e-mailed a computer-generated invoice, Casto said, which read: ``Customer is 100% satisfied with purchase or full money back no questions asked!''
The deal was so good that Casto recommended Alvarez to his sister in Louisiana, who had been planning a Disney trip, too.
Soon, 10 more family members agreed to go.
''This was going to be a grand occasion for my family, for both of my sisters, my mom and dad to be all together in one place,'' Casto said. ``This was going to be a family reunion. This was going to be great.''
Said his sister Retha Warren: ``She was very professional. Very sweet. She had a knack for relating to you personally.''
Casto also called Alvarez to ask about a floral arrangement for his wife. Alvarez called him back to offer him the $199 limo-restaurant-spa package.
But by then, the family had grown suspicious.
No paperwork had arrived. Alvarez couldn't be reached. ''Please allow until this evening for contact. I am having a very stressful morning,'' Alvarez wrote in one e-mail.
She phoned to say a family member had died.
During the following weeks, Warren and her brother began researching Alvarez. Her phone number was actually an answering service. She had placed Craigslist ads in Denver, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
They found, via the Internet, other families who claimed to have been duped. They began posting online warnings.
Martin Oeschler, 46, an oil services worker in Cypress, Texas, says Alvarez scammed his family out of $18,500 for a bogus package to the Polynesian resort in Orlando. His daughters. Aimee, 10 and Elissa, 7, had never been to Disney.
''We had to sit down with the girls and explain to them this wasn't going to happen,'' Oeschler said. ``Both of them broke down and cried. It was gut-wrenching. It really was.''
The girls, he says, even wrote e-mails to Alvarez asking why she cheated the family. She never responded.
The FBI has received complaints about Alvarez for years, police say.
She has been married three times, including to her first-cousin, Heikel Vera, 23. They owe some $5,000 to aunt, Caridad Vera, 59, who helped them buy furniture.
''I don't know what her problem is. She's from a good family. Her father and mother work like mules,'' Caridad Vera said.
The investigators tasked with building a case against her were Detective Salvador Perez and Sgt. David Quintana, of Miami-Dade's Hammocks district, where Alvarez had lived and received checks.
Tracking her down was not hard: The e-mails came back to her computer's IP address. In her name also was her website and the post office box where she received checks.
The now-removed site, Afairytaleevent.com, featured Tinkerbell, Mickey Mouse and boasted of a 10-year reputation.
''It looked very legit,'' Perez said.
Perez -- who by coincidence had rendered first aid to Alvarez after she was in a wreck with a police car the year before -- arrested her in July. She was charged with third-degree grand theft and operating a business without a license.
Alvarez had blurted out that 'she was conducting business with a man that she doesn't know anything about him, only his name called `Bull.' She wanted to pay back the victims to avoid being arrested,'' Perez wrote in his report.
More complaints came flooding in.
After posting bond, Alvarez moved and changed her phone number. On Myspace.com, she posted a countdown of days before she planned to leave town.
Perez re-arrested her this week. She is charged with grand theft, unlicensed sell of travel and scheme to defraud.
Her arraignment is Oct. 27 in front of Circuit Judge Peter Adrien.
Back in Texas, families are still fuming.
Casto's daughter, Autumn, later traveled with her aunt's family to Disney. Casto and his wife did not. ''We haven't had any kind of 25th wedding anniversary as of yet,'' he said.
In Cypress, Oeschler says he dipped into his retirement fund to take his daughters to Disney.
''It was kind of a sacrifice -- but we had to go,'' he said.