A Central Islip woman has been accused of misrepresenting herself to municipal animal shelters across Long Island – including the Town of North Hempstead – to adopt dogs she later sold for a profit on the online classifieds site Craigslist.
Lisette Tobon, 23, faces up to four years in prison if she is convicted on felony charges of offering a false instrument for filing and a misdemeanor count of scheme to defraud, prosecutors said.
“Animal shelters are a taxpayer-funded service established to safeguard the animals under their care, and not a free pet store for people to make a profit,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “These animals deserve to be adopted by people who will love and take care of them – not exploit them to make an easy buck.”
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Brandon Sloane of the county’s Animal Crimes Unit.
Efforts to reach Tobon’s representatives at the Legal Aid Society were unavailing.
Prosecutors said that Tobon in November 2013 entered an agreement with the Town of North Hempstead’s Port Washington shelter to adopt an eight-year-old Pekinese on the condition she would not give away, sell or dispose of the dog without the consent of the town’s shelter. Tobon also agreed to allow the shelter to make a personal visit to her home to follow up on the adoption.
Tobon, who took custody of the dog on Nov. 19, had listed in her agreement a false telephone number and address for a Rocky Point residence that prosecutors said she had not lived at for months.
Prosecutors said Tobon sold the dog days later for $200 to a woman who answered a Craigslist ad for the animal. After exchanging text messages, Tobon told the woman the dog was three years old and she could no longer take care of it.
Tobon allegedly contacted the shelter again in December to adopt a Husky, telling employees she wanted to adopt the dog as a playmate for the Pekinese.
But when Tobon went to the shelter to see the dog, prosecutors said, she was confronted about the Craigslist sale and left without the animal.
Prosecutors said staff members from the North Hempstead shelter contacted the district attorney’s office about the sale and an investigation began to determine whether Tobon tried to adopt animals from other shelters.
Tobon was denied by the Town of Babylon’s Municipal Shelter in February after attempting to adopt another animal using the same fake address and telephone number, prosecutors said.
Tobon was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on Friday before Judge Scott Siller and released on probation. She reappeared in court on Tuesday.
