ONLY ON ABC7NEWS.COM: South San Francisco family forced to live in van after being duped by fake landlord back indoors

Tuesday, June 18, 2019
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- There has been a major outpouring of support from the community for a family who was duped out of $10,000 by a fake landlord.

When we interviewed the Gonzalez family on Monday they were homeless with no saving and no backup plan-- Tuesday, all that changed.

EXCLUSIVE: South San Francisco family lives in van after losing $10,000 to fake landlord

An anonymous donor gifted the Gonzalez family with a week in a hotel with option to extend it if needed.
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"I'm surprised. Thank you," said Victor Hugo Gonzalez.

Victor and his wife Lidia broke out in tears.



"This is nice, I'm glad that we are upstairs because we have a good view," said Elizabeth Treminio.

Elizabeth, 11, said they hadn't showered for days. Her plan for tonight-- to sleep.

This was not the only surprise-- another viewer named Cathy said she wanted to do more for the Gonzalez-- "I want to invite them to be guest at my home."
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Victor Gonzalez had no words, but his wife did.

In less than 24 hours the community raised over $10,000 for the Gonzalez family.

"I woke up and I saw the story and my heart broke immediately and I asked my husband can we take in the kids and he said yeah we can. So that's when I reached out and emailed you. I just feel bad for the kids," said Misti Baldo.



Bill Marcy donated the last $400 to bring the GoFundMe total to $10,000.

Marcy left a message saying, "Thank you for sharing the link I paid the remainder to get to the 10,000 mark!"

The GofundMe is currently more than $13,000. If you would like to contribute you can find the page here.
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