According to local business owner Ted Severance, desperate times have led some to very desperate – and illegal – measures.

Severance, owner of Coastal Forest Products lumber yards in Bow and Bedford, recently said that a scam artist successfully tricked an unsuspecting woman out of a $1,000 money order by pretending to rent her a property that Severance’s company owns.

The house, located on Dunklee Road in Bow, is currently without a tenant and sits adjacent to the lumber yard on property that Severance owns.

On March 5, he received a call from an unidentified woman who said she had recently placed a down payment to rent the property. The woman, who did not have a key to the 1,500- square-foot house, was inquiring how she might gain access to it. But by that afternoon, she was too late.

“He told this poor woman that she could rent it if she could give him that $1,000 down payment. Then, she gave him the money order,” Severance recalled. “He said he had just bought it out of foreclosure. He certainly lured her. She thought she was going to move in.”

Severance explained that the residence is usually occupied by one of the lumber yard employees. In fact, a new employee is preparing to move in shortly, he said.

“When she called this afternoon, she said ‘Hey, do you know anything about that house?’ and we said ‘Yeah, we own it. One of our guys are about to move in.’ Then she felt really bad because she realized she just lost $1,000.”

Concord police began investigating this case after Bow police determined the reported transaction had happened in Concord.