Animal shelter scammed on shed, scrambling to find new option | wcnc.com

Oct 14, 2024

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UNION COUNTY, S.C. — At Last Chance Animal Rescue, homeless dogs and cats find their sanctuary and a second chance for a forever home.

The 50-acre property in Carlisle, South Carolina, nestled in the Francis Marion & Sumter National Forests, offers a collection of outdoor recreational features for the rescue animals during the day and small group structures for resting during the night.

Facing an urgent influx of animals into local shelters, Whitney Knowlton Lowery, founder and executive director of the rescue, said she’s been hoping to expand her capacity to help.

“We house—it fluctuates—anywhere between 110 and 140 dogs on any given day, and we house about 60 to 70 cats,” Lowery said, “We’ve got trails and a big creek, and it's really beautiful… All the buildings are climate-controlled, and they've got electricity and sinks with little hot water heaters.”

Lowery said when an ad on Facebook Marketplace popped up, showing a 480-square-foot shed in Orangeburg available for second-hand purchase, she was intrigued. Lowery said she arranged to buy it, driving two hours to meet the seller, with a cashier’s check in hand for $9,500.    “The shed was there,” Lowery said. “It looked great. I was super excited. I had done all the groundwork for it.” Lowery booked a transporter to help move the structure back to the rescue.

“We loaded the building up, and we head out,” Lowery said. “We're halfway back here to the sanctuary, and they pull into a gas station. The driver comes up and says, ‘I've never had to do this before. I really don't even know what to say to you, but that building is stolen.’”

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As Lowery eventually learned, the seller was not the actual owner of the shed, which was under a rent-to-own agreement. Lowery said the shed was recently financed by another person than the seller and was put on Facebook shortly afterwards. The transporter told Lowery this type of scam is common in other parts of the state and that the finance company wanted the structure repossessed.

“The manufacturer of the shed got their building, and the thief got his money, and the charity got nothing—absolutely nothing,” Lowery said.

WCNC Charlotte reached out to the shed’s original dealer for insights on what went wrong and how others can avoid this pitfall. The dealer had some recommendations:

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For Lowery, it’s a lesson learned the hard way and one her group is trying to recover from quickly because, while their new shed dreams are gone, the influx of homeless pets remains.    “We are scrambling,” Lowery said. "We're trying so hard, like so, so, so hard to save lives, giving it everything we have at every turn of the way."

The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office told WCNC Charlotte it has promising leads in this case and hopes to have developments to share soon. 

If you’d like to help Last Chance Animal Rescue with donations, visit the group’s website.