YORK COUNTY, S.C. — A Charlotte-based megachurch's efforts to help someone with rent ended with a man's arrest and a 78-year-old Army veteran out hundreds of dollars.
Landlord Tony Lombardo said he still hasn't received the $650 Elevation Church sent him earlier this year.
"It would help," Lombardo said of the money. "I could pay some bills."
The Rock Hill Police Department and York County Sheriff's Office charged Christopher Mark Buda earlier this month with forgery and larceny. His arrest came after the landlord evicted Buda and a woman who were renting two rooms in his house for several months.
Lombardo said after looking through what the pair left behind at his home, he found a returned check along with a letter telling Buda the bank couldn't allow his deposit to go through. Lombardo and Buda's signatures were on the back of the check.
"That is not my signature," he said.
The discovery came before Lombardo knew Elevation Church sent him the check in July to help cover rent for the woman. He said Buda forged his signature and tried to deposit the check.
"It kind of made me feel empty," Lombardo said.
Lombardo alerted police last month, but records show by then, Elevation had stopped payment on the check. He said the money would prove useful since he uses rent to help supplement is limited social security income.
"I started this as soon as my wife passed away," he said of renting. "It gets awfully tough."
Despite multiple attempts to find out what, if anything, Elevation plans to do to remedy the situation, we've yet to hear back from the church.
The megachurch gives 12 cents out of every dollar collected back to the community through outreach.