EATON, Ind. (WXIN) — Court documents reveal that an Indiana man thought he and his wife were moving into a brand new home after going through the real estate process and being handed the keys to a house.
What the man reportedly didn't know, however, was that his wife allegedly faked all the financial documents submitted to the realtors, broke into the home, smashed open the lock box, and told her husband they were new homeowners.
According to court documents, police officers from the Eaton Police Department were called out to a home on Feb. 16 after the property owner claimed to have spotted a U-Haul truck outside. The owner told police no one was supposed to be at the home, which was vacant and for sale.
Officers say they arrived to the scene to find a couple moving into the house, unloading boxes and brandishing keys to the front door.
Courtney L. Davis, 32, reportedly told officers that she and her husband had purchased the home and been given the keys by their realtor, who took them out of the lock box after the sale was finalized and handed them over. Davis even showed police screenshots of paperwork that showed they had purchased the home, officers say.
But the story didn't match what the property owner told police. According to the property owner's realtor, the sale of the house was never finalized due to payment never being received. A deeper dive uncovered that not only had the couple not submitted their payment, but the forms handed over to the realtor were allegedly fraudulent.
The realtor said they noticed something was off with the forms due to grammatical errors such as "contact u at" instead of "contact us at."
Police reached out to the couple's realtor, who supposedly handed the pair the keys from the house's lock box, only to learn that that too was a lie. The realtor said the sale hadn't been completed and told police she did not hand over the keys from the lock box.
Police ended up discovering that the lock box had been smashed open, the pieces hidden inside a drawer in the house.
When the couple was confronted, police say Davis told them her husband had been left in the dark about the fraud. He hadn't been aware of the fraudulent statements or the truth behind the lock box, she confessed.
Davis reportedly confessed to breaking into the home prior to the couple "moving in." She said she climbed through the windows, unlocked all the doors, and smashed open the lock box before her husband arrived to move their stuff in.
During the investigation, it was also discovered that a tow truck driven by Davis's husband was reported stolen.
Davis told police she had let her husband drive the truck because she couldn't drive stick. The truck had reportedly been purchased with a bad check. Again, Davis's husband was reportedly kept in the dark about the stolen nature of the truck, allegedly having no idea about the bad check used to purchase the vehicle.
Davis faces felony charges of possession of stolen property, fraud, criminal mischief, burglary, residential entry, obstruction of justice and false informing.
Her husband faces charges of residential entry and possession of stolen property.
The Delaware County Prosecutor's Office will determine final charges.