'He's A Loser'
The small house at 160th and 15th Avenue Northwest has been for rent for several weeks and several times.
Investigators say a 41-year-old man who was living there as a renter himself put an ad in the paper and rented it to anyone who answered.
Paul Castrillo answered the door when KOMO 4 News went to the house on Thursday. The suspect is his roommate and his mom's boyfriend.
"He wanted to find five people and make them pay first, last and a deposit and take the money," said Castrillo. "And he was gonna run and he was gonna leave us here." Castrillo also shared the house with his mom and his younger sister.
Investigators say at least one person did pay the suspect more than $1,300. Several more paid application fees of $25 each.
Castrillo says most of the money probably went to Chips Casino in Tukwila: a place he calls the suspect's favorite hangout. He claims the man has a serious gambling problem and that most of the money is probably long gone.
Until his arrest at a Denny's restaurant in Kent on Thursday morning, the suspect had allegedly been threatening his old roommates by phone warning them not to help the police. Knowing he'd finally been put in jail gave them a sense of relief that the rental scam was over for them.
"But there may be other people out there that are expecting to move in here come the first or middle of the month. We don't really know," said King County Sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart.
Police want anyone else who may have fallen victim to this scam to contact them as soon as possible.
The roommates the suspect left behind do have another problem. Fed up with the problem, the landlord who owns the house has evicted them all. They have to be out by Saturday.
"He's a loser," said Castrillo of his former roommate. "I hope I never see that guy again because he caused us as much pain as the other people. 'Cause at least the other people still have a place to live."
The accused scammer also has a place to live. For now, he's in jail.