Dollar signs almost dupe local cabin owner
Dollar signs almost dupe local cabin owner
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
A Garrison cabin site owner found out the hard way that an offer from a oil business to rent her house for a year was just too good to be true.
Elaine Noon was approached April 7 to rent her modular home in the Garrison Creek Cabin site for $6,000 a month. In less than three weeks, when the potential tenant was pressed to provide the names and contact information of everyone who would be living there, the deal dried up. She could only leave a message on the Minnesota man’s phone to say, “I’m stunned that you were such a nice guy and what it comes down to is you’re not.”
Today, Noon, still recovering from feeling vulnerable and duped, wanted to share her stories so others in the area wouldn’t face a similar fate.
“I think I could be one of the first casualties in this area,” she said. Noon said she hoped others learned from her ordeal.
Noon was offered $6,000 a month. She said she’d need the first month’s and last month’s rent, plus a deposit and the man readily agreed. “I thought ‘wow,’” she said.
Her first impression was a friendly man who disarmed her with stories of his family. He said he intended to use the place for his wife to visit, although 3-4 people were going to live in the house and two campers would have additional people outside. He seemed sincere when he said he’d take good care of her property and respect the hard work she put into updating the cabin to a home.
“I said, ‘you’re not going to snooker me, are you?’ He said he was a good family man and rest assured that wouldn’t happen.’”
Noon’s greatest concern was what the rental would do to her neighborhood.
