SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — Deputies say it’s happened again: Yet another woman is under arrest, charged with scamming a couple attempting to adopt her child.
Angelica Lopez, 30, was arrested Friday.
It's the second case of adoption fraud in one week in Pinellas County and now the latest family to fall victim wants future adoptive parents to be aware of the warning signs.
“When we got matched, it was two months before Christmas,” said Greg Garbee of his plans to adopt a child with his wife, Amaia. “The financial investment isn’t insignificant but the emotional one is immeasurable.”
The process has been ongoing for about four years.
"You start planning this life with this child you don’t even know, so when it becomes tangible you can’t help but plan,” he said. “We had parties with friends. People couldn’t stop giving us gifts even though we would tell them no. There was no doubt that baby was going to be ours.”
The Garbee’s say they had regular communication and even meetings with the child’s mother, Lopez, who was serving time in the Pinellas County Jail.
But then as they approached what they thought was the baby’s due date, everything changed.
“We kept asking, are you going to the doctor… what’s going on? And the answers were not vague. They were very detailed. hey were just total fabrications,” Garbee said.
Sheriff’s investigators say that’s because Lopez had already given birth and despite text messages stating otherwise had no intention of giving her child up. The Garbees who’d invested more than $10,000 through the process got the devastating news from a social worker.
“She said call me and that’s when we found out she had scammed us,” Garbee said. “We were so anxious right up till the end and it was excruciating. I’ve never experienced anything like a stillborn or anything like that but it would seem to be the same kind of emotions.”
Months later, the Garbees were re-matched and have since been blessed with a 5-week-old baby boy. But now they’re now speaking out so other adoptive parents are blinded by the excitement and joy of a promised child.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Garbee said. “Without repercussion for these girls, there’s nothing to stop them.”
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