FISHERS, Ind. — A Fishers woman has been charged after investigators say she tried to lease the same home to three separate people.
Each person independently contacted the Fishers Police Department in December of 2021 and told police they were victims of fraud involving a rental home they found on Facebook. Each person had signed an individual lease and paid at least $600 to secure the home.
According to court documents, all three named Megan Stoner as the person on the other end of the scam. Two of the victims said they had made a Facebook post about needing a home in Fishers, and Stoner messaged them about a house on Morgan Street. The third person said they reached out to Stoner after seeing her Facebook post about the Morgan Street residence.
All three told police they agreed to sign a lease after Stoner gave them a walkthrough of the property.
The first potential tenant signed a lease with a move-in date of Dec. 7, 2021; the second potential tenant signed a lease with a move-in date of Dec. 1, 2021; the third person’s move-in date was Dec. 15, 2021, according to charging documents.
Stoner asked each person to pay the first month’s rent and a security deposit. While the third victim only paid the security deposit, the first two paid both. Investigators said Stoner pocketed $4,100 as a result.
As each move-in date got closer or passed, court documents showed Stoner would give the victims various excuses about why their move-in dates needed to be pushed back. She told them everything from she had been in a car accident to a family member was in the hospital.
Investigators later learned Stoner was not the actual owner of the Morgan Street home and was a tenant herself. The actual owner told police he had learned about the scam and was evicting Stoner for “attempting to sublease his rental property to several different people fraudulently.”
Fishers police said they had also investigated Stoner in September of 2021 for trying to sublease a unit at District of Saxony Apartment Complex. A woman told police she paid Stoner $1,700 but never received a key to the apartment. She also said her move-in date changed four times due to various excuses. When the woman asked for a refund, Stoner reportedly told her she didn’t have the money and would work on getting the funds.
According to investigators, the woman was paid back about a month later, and the prosecutor’s office did not move forward in filing charges connected to the September 2021 investigation.
The prosecutor’s office is filing charges in the latest instance of overlapping leases. Stoner has been charged with three separate felony counts of fraud and three separate felony counts of theft, as well as a felony count of corrupt business influence.
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