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Woman pleads guilty in real estate scam By CHRIS BRISTOL A Central Point woman accused of theft for trying to sell a home she didn't own got two years' probation Wednesday. In a plea bargain, Nancy Lombardo admitted that she practiced real estate without a license -- a rarely charged Class A misdemeanor that resulted from what prosecutor Tim Barnack described as "kind of a crazy con." Barnack said Lombardo, 61, tried to rent a house in Jacksonville last year to two different people at the same time and then took down payments on the place -- even though it wasn't hers and she wasn't authorized by the owner to rent or sell it. "It's kind of a crazy con," Barnack said. "She was just flat-out taking advantage of people. It's an unconscionable thing to do." Jackson County Judge Dan Harris also ordered Lombardo to perform 40 hours of community service and make restitution. Barnack dropped three counts of felony first-degree theft, citing the defendant's relatively clean record. Lombardo had nothing to say in court Wednesday. Her attorney, Michael Kellington, said the defense was prepared to dispute the state's case at trial. He didn't elaborate. According to Barnack, Lombardo came to the attention of authorities last November when she was accused of taking two rental deposits on the same house at the same time. Both victims told police they met Lombardo after responding to a classified ad in the Mail Tribune offering a four-bedroom house for rent. They each paid a cash deposit of $650 after seeing the place, even though they were never shown the interior. Barnack said police subsequently warned Lombardo to stop -- she repaid at least one victim -- and also instructed her that it was illegal to show the place without a real estate license. He said Lombardo was not authorized to rent out the house and knew the owner only because she once rented another property from him. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to police, Lombardo had taken more than $3,100 from another man as part of a $5,000 down payment on the house. Later, in December, she took an additional $1,000 from the man, then told him the deal was off, Barnack said. And she refused to return the money. Then, in January, she took $10,000 from another man. The home's owner told police he authorized Lombardo to sell the house, but only to the fourth victim, and she never deposited the full down payment in his account. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA