{"id":66710,"date":"2025-12-01T17:21:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/66710\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:21:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:21:21","slug":"port-st-lucie-woman-gets-her-stolen-land-back-after-year-long-legal-battle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/66710\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie woman gets her stolen land back after year-long legal battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">A Port St. Lucie woman has finally reclaimed her property after police said a Michigan woman with the same last name <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/wptv-investigates\/your-lot-was-sold-port-st-lucie-woman-learns-land-where-she-planned-to-build-retirement-home-stolen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fraudulently sold land she never legally owned.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rosalee McCurdy\u2019s vacant lot is filled with sand, weeds, shrubs and construction debris. But most importantly, it\u2019s hers again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m just happy to have my lot back,\u201d McCurdy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The property was stolen in June 2024 when Port St. Lucie police say Rosalie Lawrence, who previously had the last name McCurdy, was contacted by an acquisition company and sold the land she never legally owned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to a police report, the acquisition company then sold the property to Texas-based D.R. Horton Homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McCurdy, the rightful owner, only discovered the fraudulent sale when she went to pay her property taxes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After a year-long legal saga and thousands of dollars in legal fees, McCurdy finally got her land back when a St. Lucie County judge awarded her the title last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m buying my lot back, which was like mine to begin with in the first place. It doesn\u2019t seem to make any sense to me,\u201d McCurdy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police charged Lawrence with an ongoing scheme to defraud and the criminal use of personal information. Lawrence has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is set to go on trial in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McCurdy said if the WPTV investigation hadn\u2019t exposed this crime, she might have lost the land where she plans to build her retirement home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThank you so much, I really do appreciate it, what you\u2019ve done. I couldn\u2019t have done it without you,\u201d McCurdy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McCurdy does not have a timetable to build on the property, but eventually envisions a three-bedroom home with a modern design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">HOW TO PREVENT A SIMILAR SITUATION<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">So, how can other property owners reduce the chances of this happening to you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Palm Beach and Treasure Coast counties have a program called \u201cProperty Fraud Alert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">County Clerk of Court Offices notify you immediately if there is an inquiry about any deeds, mortgages or other official records or issued in your name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Related Links:<\/p>\n<p>PALM BEACH COUNTYST. LUCIE COUNTYMARTIN COUNTYINDIAN RIVER COUNTYOKEECHOBEE COUNTY<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Port St. Lucie woman has finally reclaimed her property after police said a Michigan woman with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-66710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}