Floridians rescue spring break vacation for scammed Grayslake family

Ann Marie Walkington was scammed and that's how she made a friend for life.

Not with the scammer, that's for sure. But with a Fort Myers Beach, Florida, businessman who rescued her, took in the Grayslake family, gave them the vacation of a lifetime and, as Walkington put it, “restored my faith in humanity.”

Walkington and her three children, ages 10, 14 and 17, drove to Fort Myers Beach to spend a week in a one-bedroom condo she had rented from a Craigslist ad.

She had wired $600 in advance and was promised someone would be there when she arrived to hand her the keys and make sure her family would have “a blast on this trip …”

Walkington was exhausted when she arrived at the condo at 8 a.m. She had driven 1,300-plus miles without a stopover and just needed to sleep. But there were two women in the condo who told her they didn't have to check out until 10 a.m.

When Walkington showed them her contract, the women said it didn't look like the one they had. Soon the building manager showed up, took a look at Walkington's contract and called the condo owner, who told him Walkington had been scammed.

“I just started bawling,” Walkington said.

A call went out to the Lee County sheriff's office and that's when things started to turn around for Walkington. She just hadn't realized it yet.

• This article has been republished with permission of The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida. To read the full version of the story, click here.