PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The house at 3316 Bluebird in Holiday was the place Dana Molina hoped to raise her family.
“When I walked into the house, the first thing I thought was ‘oh wow this looks like my grandma’s house’ and I pictured my daughter growing up…to be able to go to prom,” Molina said.
She found the house after spotting a sign that said it was for rent. $800 to move in.
“I took the sign, I didn’t have a pen or paper or my phone.I just took the sign out of the ground.”
Molina said it seemed like a great deal.
“She said she would work with me. All I had to do is pay $650 a month. She will work with the deposit and that was it. I was like awesome. I thought this was a miracle,” Molina said.
But it wasn’t a deal, it was a dupe… a sign she see and her husband see now.
The woman who rented them the home, Patricia Lamp, doesn’t own this house and had no legal right to rent it, according to Pasco County detectives.
“It’s sad. I don’t know what made her do something like this but she had no heart to go ahead and do this… just tear down a family where she didn’t care,” Molina said.
Turns out, Lamp has done this before. She has active warrants in Hillsborough County for the very same thing. And while renting the Bluebird house, was trying to rent another one in New Port Richey.
Dana Molina was going to share this house with her cousin’s family
“We were gonna split the bills and it was perfect. We have a big room they have their room and the kids have their room ya know it was a scam,” said cousin Breanna Puckett.
Now they are going from scam to scramble. They have no idea how long it will be before they’re forced to leave.
The real owner of the home wants the place rented and will offer them a chance to do so, if they pay the necessary fees and pass background checks. Dana Molina is worried she won’t pass it. She’s hoping and praying for a good outcome.
In the meantime, when Patricia Lamp leaves Pasco County, she’ll have to face charges in Hillsborough.
