CINCINNATI — A fake Craigslist ad spoiled the plans of a Cincinnati dad who thought he had found a dream home for his young daughter. But their story had a happy ending after all.
Just last week, Timothy Schuler and his family were living in Price Hill and desperate to get out.
“There were gunshots everywhere. There were gunshots in front of our house,” Schuler said. “It was really unsafe and it was an environment where she couldn’t really go outside and play.”
Schuler had his sights set on renting a home in Colerain Township until he realized the Craigslist ad asking for $1,000 a month was fake.
Schuler tipped off police to the man he says posted the ad, and they arrested Rayshawn Jones on outstanding warrants. That turned out to be a big relief to the management company whose house was at the center of the fake ad.
Bob Dressman, operations manager of Reinvest Consultants, said they had previous trouble with Jones.
“This character has popped up a couple times and we’ve gotten charges pressed on him, but they’ve had a hard time getting him convicted. It looks like this time, hopefully, that will actually happen,” Dressman said.
Dressman said Reinvest Consultants was grateful to Schuler and wanted to return the favor.
“We were just so grateful that somebody finally got him and he didn’t just disappear into the wind. When somebody does something like that, you want to do everything you can to help them out,” Dressman said.
The Colerain home was out of Schuler’s budget, but Reinvest Consultants helped find him an affordable home for his family in Carthage. And that was a big relief to Schuler.
“Now we’re in a great place. We’re out of Price Hill, thank God. My daughter has a safe environment to live in, and I know there’s a few pre-schools close to here so she’ll be there in a couple years,” Schuler said.
Schuler also prevented the same thing from happening to another parent.
“People need to stand up in society and do things like that because there are monsters out here that prey on people and those are the people you really have to watch,” he said.
“We did the right thing at the end of the day. Even if they wouldn’t have been able to help us get into a place or find a place that was within our budget, we still would’ve done what we did.”
